The resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the region is hitting the school community, which must deal with the rising absenteeism rate among students. The rate is two to three times higher at four school service centers in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean compared to the previous two weeks.
This situation forces schools to review their teaching strategy for the continuity of classes.
As of March 15, the student absenteeism rate was approximately 1% in the region.
Two weeks later, it was just over 3% for the school service centers of Rives-du-Saguenay and Pays-des-Bleuets and about 2% in De La Jonquière and Lac-Saint-Jeans.
For the Séminaire de Chicoutimi, at least 10% of students must be absent because of COVID-19.
This situation forced private secondary schools to restore bimodal education, allowing sick students to continue their studies remotely.
With the January contingency plan, we implemented bimodal, so the teachers were giving their lessons live and online, then recently we stopped, and at least reduced, because there were fewer absences. . The classes are really almost full. But on Monday we actually had a significant wave of absences, so bimodal came back to all of our groups when relevant.explained Séminaire de Chicoutimi director Bianca Tremblay.
Predictable according to Donald Aubin
For the regional director of public health, Dr. Donald Aubin, the increase in cases and hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean is not surprising.
These increases are predictable following the elimination of almost all health measures in mid-March, Drs. Aubin.
We look forward to the increase we have modeled. We always model a little bit, at the end of February, beginning of March. We looked forward to it. Our models are very, very clear, and presented with an upside risk, depending on the scenarios we are looking at. The spike was a bit later, about four weeks later, but it was there. We really look forward to that. What we see, however, is that the angulation is very fast. It’s pretty fasthe admitted.
There are 460 health network employees currently isolated due to the coronavirus.
Five intensive care patients at Chicoutimi hospital were placed in a hot zone to facilitate staff management. The region has four other intensive care patients in three hospitals.
Based on a report by Roby St-Gelais
Source: Radio-Canada