The Ontario Ministry of Health has started to differentiate who was infected – staff or student – by the coronavirus and have then tested positive for COVID-19.
Niagara Regional Public Health and the Niagara school boards will not identify COVID-19 cases in real-time by name or whether they are staff or students. The practice cited by NRPH as a privacy policy and followed by the school boards could be deadly as someone could be infected in a school could have contact with others spreading the disease.
A week after an individual is reported, their identity as either school staff or student can now be discerned in provincially published data by the province.
As the outbreak at St. Martin Catholic Elementary school continues to grow, it has been determined that of the 10 cases, 4 were students and 4 were staff cases. The remaining two cases have not been identified.
Last week, a case was confirmed at Glynn A. Green Elementary School in Pelham. The COVID-positive individual was a child in the YMCA childcare program at the school.
According to the COVID-19 cases in schools and child care centres webpage, within the past 14 days, there have also been confirmed cases at Smith Public School in Grimsby and St. Elizabeth Catholic Elementary School in Wainfleet.
These cases have not been updated on the Niagara Catholic or District School Board of Niagara COVID-19 advisory pages. It is uncertain if it is a discrepancy on the webpage or if these cases have not been shared by the school boards yet.
At Smith Public School, the confirmed case was a student and at St. Elizabeth Elementary School, the confirmed case was a staff member.
Here is a run down of West Niagara schools that have reported cases:
| School Board | Student cases | Staff cases | Person not yet identified | Total confirmed cases | ||
| Smith Public School | Grimsby | DSBN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| St. Martin Catholic Elementary School | Smithville | Niagara Catholic | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| St Elizabeth Catholic Elementary School | Wainfleet | Niagara Catholic | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| YMCA Child Care – Glynn A. Green | Pelham | DSBN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |