The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit will continue to push for in-person learning once the province permits it once again.
The province announced on Monday that students across the province will do their schooling online for at least the first two weeks following the April Break.
"We need to work together as a province and a community to slow the spread of the virus so we can get our children back in school as soon as possible," said Dr. Jim Chirico, the Health Unit's Chief Medical Officer.
The online learning will begin on April 19, and Louise Gagne, the Executive Director of Community Services with the Health Unit, says the province has not indicated how long this shift will be.
"They did say that these measures will be in place until a decrease in COVID-19 cases is observed and when the province feels it is safe to return to in-person learning," said Gagne.
"We know how important it is for students to return to in-person learning, not just for the students but also the parents and guardians who try to continue to work.
The Health Unit admits it is concerned about community spread of COVID-19 as the district has reported 14 new cases in the region in the past seven days with 21 active cases and one person reported to be in hospital.
"Yes, we have been strongly advocating for this throughout the pandemic as we do feel it is very important," Gagne added.
"Even when we had higher restrictions earlier in the pandemic we were able to maintain our children with in-person learning. As I have stated before, the situation is like nothing we have seen before in the province and we need to be working together across the province in order to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19."
Chirico and Gagne encourage residents to adhere to the measures and that will keep the spread low and potentially allow schools to re-open sooner than later.
