Lambton's medical officer of health says so far there hasn't been a lot of COVID-19 transmission in schools.
Dr. Sudit Ranade made the comment to Sue Storr on CHOK (103.9 FM, 1070 AM) Thursday morning following Wednesday's news of two positive cases among students attending Northern Collegiate Institute and Vocational School.
"What we've experienced with schools since the beginning of September has been very positive in general," said Ranade. "Just because there are cases, yes many people are isolated as a result of having had contact with a case, but we're not seeing a lot of transmission in the school setting, not on average. Not the way that it was possible in the early days to conceive of lots and lots of transmission in schools, we're not really seeing it to that degree."
Dr. Ranade said evidence also suggests children under 10 aren't likely to spread the virus.
"The evidence is showing us that with coronavirus they actually don't act as super-spreaders or high transmitters. They're not very efficient at transmitting that disease. I'm really, really grateful that's the way that this has played out. It might be a different story if children were major spreaders of this," he said.
Dr. Ranade said no outbreak has been declared at Northern high school at this time, and the school remains open.
An outbreak can be declared at a school if there are two or more cases and evidence that the virus is being spread within the school setting.
Currently, there are 16 known active cases of COVID-19 in Sarnia-Lambton.
