There are 26 active COVID-19 cases in the Northwestern Health Unit catchment area and 21 of them are in the Kenora area.
That includes one at St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
Derek Haime is the Director of Education for the Kenora Catholic District School Board and says testing is taking place.
Haime says that classroom has been closed and those students will continue to learn on-line with their teacher.
The rising case load in the area has resulted in a two-week lockdown in nearby Rat Portage First Nation.
The lockdown will last until Tuesday, December 8th.
For the next two weeks, all programming on Rat Portage will be cancelled.
Band residents are being asked to limit their movement in the community and not to visit anyone who isn’t from their household.
Next week community-wide testing will take place.
The COVID-19 bottleneck has started with Manitoba reporting 540 new cases Monday.
Dr. Brent Roussin is the Medical Officer of Health and says the positivity rate is growing.
“In Steinbach, the ten day test positivity rate is 40%. 40% of people getting tested are testing positive. We’re seeing about 30 to 40 positive tests every day. Just in Steinbach.”
And the Thunder Bay District Health Unit is urging people to stay home and avoid non-essential travel outside of the area.
There are 78 active cases within the district.
