Trent University expects to soon have 95% of staff, students with full COVID-19 vaccinations - ThePeterboroughExaminer.com

Trent University will likely have 95 per cent of its faculty and students fully vaccinated within a week or two, says president Leo Groarke.

Groarke said during Peterborough Public Health’s virtual press briefing on COVID-19 on Thursday that a requirement for students and staff to show proof of full vaccination to access campus is meeting with compliance.

As of this week, 94 per cent of Trent staff and 88 per cent of students were fully vaccinated, with the number increasing daily, he said

“There’s a spirit of carefulness and co-operation,” Groarke said. “And the students, I would say, are very excited to be back on campus. They have missed in-person learning.”

Trent has two active student cases at its Peterborough campus (one reported on Sunday) and another at its Durham Region campus in Oshawa.

Operations on both campuses continue while the students self-isolated.

Two active COVID-19 cases were also reported Thursday at Millbrook/South Cavan Public School, but the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board has not specified if they are student or staff cases.

Meanwhile Fleming College is also requiring students and staff to show proof of full vaccination before accessing campus.

Fleming vice-president of student experience Sandra Dupret said at the press briefing that 40 per cent of programs are being carried out in-person on campus at this time — the rest are happening online.

The college issues its own campus “passports” to people who’ve shown proof of full vaccination, Dupret said; officials expected to issue somewhere around 1,800 of those this fall, based on the number of in-person learners.

But Dupret said 4,800 passports have been issued, meaning students and faculty who are working remotely are voluntarily presenting proof of full vaccination.

Meantime local school boards are also expecting their staff to attest to full vaccination and are required to post details on the rates:

Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic School Board

• 86 per cent of school staff has attested to being fully vaccinated.

• 13.7 per cent of the staff — or 319 people — have not yet submitted any attestation.

Board communications manager Galen Eagle said many of those 319 people are supply teachers who haven’t worked in awhile; some have opted not to supply teach during the pandemic.

Others are staff working in the schools who haven’t provided attestation yet.

“We’re moving ahead with those employees: either putting them on the path of complying with this procedure or moving toward disciplinary measures,” Eagle said.

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board

• 84.4 per cent of staff have attested they’re fully vaccinated.

• 8.4 per cent of the board staff — or 414 people — have not supplied any attestation.

“We continue to follow up with anyone who has not completed their attestation,” said Greg Kidd, executive officer of corporate affairs with the board.

“Our staff will either be fully vaccinated or they will be subject to regular antigen testing as part of a condition of being in schools.”

Mon Avenir (French Catholic board with one school in Peterborough, Monseigneur-Jamot)

• 67.4 per cent of board staff has attested to full vaccination.

• 23.7 per cent of the board staff — or 609 people — have not supplied any attestation.

Gina Kozak, superintendent of education for Mon Avenir, said she doesn’t know say why the rate of self-declared vaccinated staff is nearly 20 per cent lower in her school board compared to the English Catholic and public boards.

“But we are evidently monitoring this percentage,” she said. “We’re very optimistic that that number will go up — and we hope that we’ll be in those high percentages like our colleagues.”

joelle.kovach@peterboroughdaily.com

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Trent University expects to soon have 95% of staff, students with full COVID-19 vaccinations - ThePeterboroughExaminer.com
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