The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit is still playing a waiting game in terms of decisions regarding in-class learning in the fall.
The issue is a complicated one, as many students aged 12 to 17 will potentially be fully vaccinated by the start of the school year, while younger students, at this time, still do not have access to a safe vaccine.
The Health Unit and the School Boards have been in dialogue about this big issue.
"We are working closely with the school boards and the ministry," noted Dr. Jim Chirico, the Chief Medical Officer with the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit.
"It has not been determined exactly what it will look like but the immediate plan is to get as many of that age group vaccinated as possible and given the ever-changing pandemic and the virus and the variants of concern, we have to assess the situation closer to when they are going to be going back to school to be able to determine what we would recommend as far as loosening up any restrictions that would occur so we have to follow it as it evolves."
See related: High vaccination rates, ongoing measures mean near-normal return to school in B.C.
See related: More than half of eligible youth in district have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine
In places like British Columbia, students and parents can expect a near-normal return to school in British Columbia this fall as regular activities like assemblies and field trips are phased in and any transmission of COVID-19 is monitored.
Premier Doug Ford officially announced on June 2 that schools would not reopen in June and that students would continue with remote learning across the province until the end of the school year.
During Wednesday's Board of Health meeting, Andrea McLellan, the Health Unit's lead on COVID-19 vaccinations shared 51 per cent of eligible youth in the district in the 12-17 age group have received at least the first dose, as of Wednesday.
Second dose clinics will begin the week of August 9.
Medical officials aim to have 80 per cent of eligible youth aged 12 to 17 vaccinated with two doses before the start of school in September.
