Vernon Christian School closed due to COVID

The Vernon Christian School has closed due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.

School board chairman Darrin Taylor confirmed the school had closed effective for two weeks as of today, Nov. 4, by the Interior Health Authority.

A message on the school's answering machine says the school is closed until further notice.

Taylor said he didn't know any details about the amount of COVID cases or exposures and said that information was held by Interior Health.

He said he had no way of knowing what the vaccination rate was at the school.

According to Interior Health, the exposures took place Oct. 22, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29. The health authority confirmed there had been 39 COVID cases at the school.

A picture posted to the school's Facebook page, Nov. 3, show around 20 students, many of them not wearing masks, contrary to the province's public health order.

The school currently has approximately 440 pupils from kindergarten to Grade 12.

Interior Health also confirmed an outbreak at the King’s Christian School in Salmon Arm with 35 cases in total. The exposures took place Oct. 22, 25, 26, 27 and 28.

"Declaring outbreaks and temporary closure was felt to be necessary to break the chain of transmission at these schools where we have seen a high and rapid increase in the number of cases. We needed to address in-school transmission which was not being clearly controlled by isolation and other public health management measures alone," Interior Health said in an email.

— This story was updated at 4:50 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, to include information from Interior Health.

— This story was updated at 4:46 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, to include information from Interior Health.

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