Kamloops-Thompson school district awaiting more information on vaccination of teachers

Superintendent Terry Sullivan said the Kamloops-Thompson school district is still waiting for specifics around how teachers in the district will be vaccinated.

But, he added, news of prioritization of frontline workers is welcome.

“It’s good news and I think it’s really given people a shot in the arm, literally,” Sullivan said on Tuesday (March 23) during a twice-annual joint meeting between the school district and the city.

Sullivan said the school district expects to be contacted in early April.

Meanwhile, Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian asked about COVID-19 cases that have popped up at schools in the area.

Sullivan said “relatively few” transmissions have occurred from within schools, but that community transmission — predominantly adult to adult transmission — has led to cases continuing to sporadically pop up in schools in the district.

Sullivan said confirmed cases in schools continued until the past weekend, including at Westmount and Dufferin elementaries.

“I’m concerned about what we’ll see after schools return in the province, after March break,” Sullivan said.

Students in the Kamloops-Thompson school district returned this week as their spring break is one week long. Almost all other districts in B.C., including private schools in Kamloops, have two-week spring breaks and return to class on March 29.

Christian attended the Tournament Capital Centre vaccination clinic this week when it opened for inoculations. He credited Interior Health staff for navigating hurdles of the vaccination campaign, including uncertainty around vaccine supply, the number of doses for a particular brand of vaccine and more, citing “a lot of variables at play.”

Christian said vaccinations are expected to ramp up next week, when both the TCC and McArthur Island Curling Club clinics will be open. He said the more shots in arms means the faster the community will reach herd immunity and return to a sense of normalcy.