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.
When asked what day the exposure took place, Boucher said Public Health Sudbury does not provide the consortium with this information. Sudbury.com requested this information from Public Health Sudbury, and will update this story when and if the information is provided.
Boucher said the morning bus run for route L-800 was also cancelled Monday for the same reason, impacting students from École St-Denis (which has since been closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak) and École Hélène-Gravel.
She said the bus driver from that route is also self-isolating.
When the school bus cancellations were announced this morning, the consortium said on its Twitter page that it was due to a driver shortage.
Boucher said that was because the same drivers also do secondary school runs in addition to the elementary school runs where they received the COVID-19 exposure.
Because they have been asked to self-isolate, they are obviously unable to do the high school runs, thus the shortage of drivers.
“All of the other children who are impacted by the cancellation of the run who have not been exposed to COVID-19, their bus is just cancelled because we did not have additional drivers to replace the run,” Boucher said.
The consortium is working with the operator on a solution for next week, she said.
The Rainbow District School Board issued a letter on its website Jan. 21, saying Lansdowne students on these two bus routes are required to self-isolate due to exposure to COVID-19. St. David was closed earlier this week due to a COVID-19 outbreak at the school.
A spokesperson for Conseil scolaire catholique Nouvelon said parents of École St-Joseph students who were on the affected bus run were informed by the consortium and the school’s principal.
