CALGARY -- Seven Calgary schools have now declared a COVID-19 outbreak and one of those schools has been elevated to 'watch' status with six positive cases of the virus.
Chris Akkerman School in the northeast community of Marlborough sent a letter home to parents informing them two or more people have tested positive for COVID-19. It has yet to be added to the provincial government’s official outbreak list, but Crescent Heights High School in Calgary and Centre High in Edmonton were also added to the list Wednesday afternoon.
Ten Alberta schools are now on the list in total, seven of which are in Calgary. An outbreak is declared in any school with at least two cases.
St. Wilfrid School in northeast Calgary has six confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and the Calgary Catholic School District says 65 students have been told to self-isolate at home.
The situation has parents of students at the school on edge.
"You don’t know who the kids are who got infected, I must suggest (the schools) be closed. Everybody should go online," said Menalyn Monsanto, who has a child attending St. Wilfrid School.
"It’s a little bit scary."
Health officials say none of the cases at St. Wilfrid are believed to have been transmitted between people at the school. All of the cases were spread in the community, though officials wouldn’t say exactly how.
In the meantime, parents are doing all they can to help keep their children safe from getting infected.
"We just are educating the children how we want them to social distance and you practice the hand washing," said Antony Aby, another parent with a child at St. Wilfrid.
There are now 62 cases of COVID-19 at 45 schools in Alberta, according to the provincial government.
Also on Wednesday, officials at Mount Royal University confirmed a positive case of the illness in a member of that community. The individual, whose identity was not revealed by the school, visited campus sometime last week.
According to Alberta Health, 171 new cases of COVID-19 were discovered over the past 24 hours. There are 1,495 active cases of the illness in the province.
