Eastwood Collegiate will remain closed Friday after measles case

The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) closed Eastwood Collegiate Institute in Kitchener on Thursday due to a confirmed case of measles and the high school will not reopen Friday.

The confirmed case caused potential exposure to the virus on May 7 and 8.

WRDSB officials say in a release, “Due to the time necessary for Public Health to complete the required steps in vaccination verification, the school will be closed on Thursday, May 15.”

The board then provided an update Thursday afternoon, saying the high school would stay closed Friday as Region of Waterloo Public Health continues vaccination verification efforts.

In a statement to 570 NewsRadio the WRDSB said:

“Asynchronous learning resources will be available for students, who may also work on previously-assigned work or spend time reviewing material previously covered. We are committed to prioritizing safe and healthy school communities and we are thankful for the continued partnership with Public Health and the guidance they provide.”

You can review the Region of Waterloo’s measles exposure dashboard here.

Measles spreading in rapidly

The virus is extremely infectious, experts have said.

Associate Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum was on The Mike Farwell Show on Tuesday and said that while Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health exceeds the provincial average for measles vaccine coverage, transmission among the unvaccinated is driving this outbreak.

“It’s incredibly infectious and the consequence means we need to have and maintain really high levels of vaccine coverage in our population, because people who aren’t up-to-date often tend to congregate with each other in pockets,” he said.

Tenenbaum used an example: if you put one person with measles in a room with 100 people who have no protection, 90 out of 100 would likely catch measles.

Several locations across the Region of Waterloo have been added to the list of potential public exposures to measles.

The majority are healthcare settings while two are for businesses: the Walmart at Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener and the McDonald’s on Hespeler Road in Cambridge.