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Zoë Watson, the superintendent of the Anglophone South School District. (Image: Tamara Steele)
The Anglophone South School District has seen a spike in student absences since Zone 2 moved to the Red phase this week.
Numbers provided by the school district show around 15 per cent of students were absent Monday and Tuesday.
That figure jumped to 23 per cent on Wednesday the first day in the Red phase and 27 per cent on Thursday.
Zoë Watson, the superintendent of the school district, said she was not surprised by the increase.
“We had noted that same jump in absenteeism back in November when our area went to the Orange phase for the first time,” Watson said in an interview Thursday.
Posted: Jan 19, 2021 9:45 AM AT | Last Updated: January 20
Premier Blaine Higgs and Dr. Jennifer Russell urged residents to continue to follow Public Health measures as the province moves to the yellow phase, warning the variants are still a threat. (Submitted by the Government of New Brunswick)
There has been another confirmed case of COVID-19 at a school in the Saint John region.
Families at Quispamsis Middle School received an email from the Anglophone South School District on Sunday night announcing the case.
Superintendent Zoë Watson said they are working with Public Health to identify any students and staff who may have been in contact with the case.
“Public Health officials will contact you if your child has been in close contact with the confirmed case and will tell you if your child needs to self-isolate,” Watson wrote in the email.
“If you are not contacted by Public Health officials, your child can continue to attend school.”
One person is in hospital, and 174,195 tests have been conducted, including 1,487 since Sunday s report.
As of Monday, Public Health has received 11,175 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and administered 7,732 doses, with 3,443 held for the second of two required doses.
A total of 2,567 New Brunswickers are fully vaccinated so far.
In a news release Monday afternoon, Dr. Jennifer Russell, the chief medical officer of health, warned that although New Brunswick cannot shut COVID-19 out completely, we must do everything we can to prevent it from spreading within our province. We have kept the avalanche of cases out of New Brunswick so far. We must act now to keep this virus from doing even more damage than we are already seeing, especially with transmission now in workplaces.