Good morning, Greater Sudbury.
Here are some stories to start your day.
13 cases reported: Public Health advising entire St. David school community to get COVID-19 tests:
Public Health Sudbury & Districts is now advising the entire St. David Catholic Elementary School community to self-isolate and contact a COVID-19 assessment centre to make arrangements to get tested. That includes all students, staff and visitors to the school. To date, there have been 13 cases of COVID-19 associated with an outbreak at the school. A press release put out by Public Health Sudbury said it was dismissing the entire school community, although Sudbury Catholic District School Board had already moved the school to online learning on Wednesday. “With additional cases reported this week, Public Health has determined there is potential widespread COVID-19 infection among the school community,” said a press release from Public Health Sudbury. “Broader testing of the school community will assist with additional case finding. This combined with isolation of all school attendees is intended to limit further spread.” Find more on this story here.
Public Health confirms a fifth person has died at Amberwood Suites:
An outbreak at the Regent Street residence was declared Jan. 5. Amberwood Suites issued a statement late Thursday night regarding the most recent death. “We are sorry to confirm a fifth resident has died due to COVID-19. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family,” the statement reads. “These losses have been incredibly difficult for the staff and Residents at Amberwood Suites. “We continue to work with our community health partners to monitor COVID positive Residents and manage the outbreak. Our fight to keep residents comfortable and healthy and to stop the spread of COVID continues to be our priority.” Details regarding the person’s passing are not being released.
Bus drivers, elementary kids self-isolating due to COVID-19 exposure on school bus:
The director of the Sudbury Student Services Consortium said two bus routes (L-118 and L-011) were cancelled today because the drivers were exposed to COVID-19, and are now self-isolating. News of exposure and the route cancellations caused some confusion this morning after the consortium was vague about the reason for the cancellation, stating only that a driver shortage was the cause. At the same time, Rainbow District School Board linked the cancellations to COVID-19. Sudbury.com was able to clear up the confusion. Renée Boucher said Public Health Sudbury & Districts advised the Sudbury Student Services Consortium on Thursday afternoon that students on two shared bus routes — the morning elementary run on Route L-118 and the afternoon elementary run on Route L-011 — were required to self-isolate up to and including Jan. 29 due to a possible exposure to COVID-19. The affected students, their parents/guardians and relevant bus drivers were notified last night. Public Health will follow up directly with drivers/parents/guardians of students on these elementary bus runs. Boucher explained that the bus run in question impacted students from Lansdowne Public School, École St-Joseph (Sudbury) and St. David Catholic Elementary School. Full story can be found here.
Fourteen new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported for Sudbury:
Public Health Sudbury and Districts has reported fourteen new cases of COVID-19 in Sudbury. It is the highest total this week and the second highest total so far this year. Nineteen cases were reported on January 9 and 14 cases were reported on January 7. Along with the case count, one new death has been reported as there are now seven deaths in total in the PHSD service area. The new case count means there have been 431 confirmed cases in the local jurisdiction since COVID-19 case tracking began in March of 2020. PHSD has also reported there are 52 active cases being monitored at this time. This is a significant drop from the number of 70 active cases that were on the roster Thursday. The health unit said it means 379 cases have been resolved. PHSD also reports that of the 14 new cases, 13 were found to have occurred within the Greater Sudbury area. One case occurred in the Manitoulin district.
Vagnini holds his ground in asking for reconsideration of Project Now vote:
Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini was close to withdrawing his motion for a reconsideration of a vote held during a Dec. 15 council meeting, but wound up sticking to his guns Wednesday night, opting to revisit the motion at a later date. Vagnini tabled a motion during council's Jan. 20 special meeting, requesting a reconsideration of a vote held more than a month ago that was asking for an evaluation of the Project Now proposal. With mayor Brian Bigger absent from the Dec. 15 meeting, the vote to take a closer look at the proposed downtown arena renovation was split 6-6, meaning that the motion was defeated. Vagnini said he mistakenly voted in opposition to the motion that evening due to a miscommunication, as the councillor thought he was voting on a deferral of the motion at the time that the vote was taken. Get the full story here.
Public Health Sudbury: Snowmobiling, skating, sliding ban not in the plans:
While one Northern Ontario health unit has decided to ban some outdoor activities such as snowmobiling, skating and hill sliding, that is not currently in the plans for Sudbury's public health region. As of Thursday January 21, all OFSC (Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs) trails and associated sledding trails on crown land within the jurisdiction of the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit were shut down by order of Dr. Jim Chirico, the medical officer of health. This takes in thousands of square kilometres from the Quebec border to Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. There are roughly 1,900 kilometres of groomed trails. The order will be in effect for the duration of the provincial stay-at-home order and can be reassessed in the future, said the news release. More on this story here.
WATCH: Sudbury teen staves off pandemic boredom by starting an online cooking show:
Sudbury teen Brady Howard has found some interesting ways to keep himself busy since the pandemic hit Canada last year and his schooling moved online. The Grade 12 student at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School has started an online cooking show called Quarantine Cooking. His mom filmed Brady (or Chef B-Dizzle, as he refers to himself in the videos) making dishes for his family such as Oklahoma Smash Onion Burgers, Creamy Spinach Tomato Pasta and even Dorito Chicken Casserole. Check out the teen's culinary creations here.