by: taylor campbell
a high covid-19 infection rate among windsor-essex youth is keeping regional case counts above the provincial average.
despite an overall drop in local cases this week, the public health unit on thursday reported 34 per cent of recent infections (roughly one in three) were aged zero to 19. by comparison, those aged 20 to 39 made up a lower 30 per cent of cases, with the remaining 36 per cent of cases ages 40 and up.
“we are seeing a stable number of cases in our school-aged children, which is reflected in the number of (school) outbreaks that we see and also the number of dismissals,” said ramsey d’souza, the health unit’s manager of epidemiology and evaluation. “across the other age groups, there has been a general decline among those cases.”
so far this school year, more than 250 class cohorts have been ordered to self-isolate following classroom covid exposures. last school year, before students were ordered to switch to remote learning in december, roughly 50 cohorts were dismissed.
“young people are disproportionately affected,” said acting medical officer of health dr. shanker nesathurai. “there have been more young people excluded from school in the early part of this academic year than all of the fall semester the previous year. that’s something that still remains surprising to me.”