Kelowna school now closed due to COVID-19

École de L’Anse-au-sable in Kelowna has closed its doors until Nov. 4 due to COVID-19.

The Conseil Scholaire Francophone province-wide school district for French language schools made that decision on Friday, Oct. 23, after the number of COVID-19 cases increased to 11 with 160 staff and students home and in isolation.

“We did an analysis of how many students and how many teachers we still had at the school and, to ensure the safety of our students, the school district decided to close the school until Nov. 4,” a spokesperson for the school district told iNFOnews.ca.

One cohort in the school, made up of students and staff in Kindergarten through Grade 3, were sent home earlier last week because of COVID-19.

There are two other cohorts amongst the 325 students in the school, which have not been affected as yet. There are 50 staff in the school.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said on more than one occasion that the only time she could envision an entire school having to close because of COVID-19 was if there were not enough staff to operate safely.

This is the first outbreak in a school in B.C. since the pandemic hit in January.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submitphotos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.