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Two cases of COVID-19 at Iqaluit school, 9 active in Nunavut

Nunavut’s chief public health officer says two COVID-19 cases at Iqaluit’s middle school came from household transmission and the risk to other students is low.
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Dr. Michael Patterson, Nunavut’s chief public health officer, poses for a portrait in the boardroom outside his office in Iqaluit, Nunavut, on Sept. 30, 2020. (Emma Tranter/Canadian Press)

Nunavut’s chief public health officer says two COVID-19 cases at Iqaluit’s middle school came from household transmission and the risk to other students is low.

With an outbreak ongoing in Iqaluit, the Aqsarniit school has split students into two groups, each group attending classes on alternating days.

Dr. Michael Patterson says the infected students are in the same group, so the school will stay open for students in the other cohort.

Contacts and classmates of the two infected students are being tested for COVID-19 and Patterson says that later today he will reassess whether the school should stay open.

The territory’s Health Department says it is also working with Agnico Eagle Mines to get residents back to work at its gold mine in central Nunavut after being sent home with pay when the pandemic began in March 2020.

There are nine active cases of COVID-19 in Nunavut, all in Iqaluit.