School District's at home, distributed learning website crashes

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Nanaimo Ladysmith School District

The demand for at home schooling in Nanaimo is so high this year, the district's website crashed on the first day of registration. The president of the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School Board says more than 300 students have registered for the Island ConnectEd program. It allows students to learn from home. The district is hiring more teachers for the program. Charlene McKay says the district is doing all it can to accommodate students and their families.

"The registration is wide open. We are not wait listing families. We are getting them in. and we'll make those connections as soon as we can and then we'll investigate what else we need to do for those supports."—President of the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School Board, Charlene McKay.

The district opted to expand the program, instead of creating wait lists, after the Minister of Education, Rob Flemming promised school districts their funding would not be reduced. In past years, the district would receive less funding for a student enrolled in the ConnectEd program, compared to a student enrolled at a school.

More Details on COVID-19 Numbers

BC's Provincial Health Officer is offering more details into where and how COVID-19 cases have been transmitted. Normally, Dr. Bonnie Henry provides case counts by Health Region. Now, those numbers are being broken down into smaller areas. As of the end of July on Vancouver Island, the highest case count recorded is on the North Island, where 30 people in Alert Bay were infected in an outbreak early in the pandemic. There have been 15 cases in Nanaimo, nine in the Cowichan Valley and six in Parksville. Dr. Henry says the exposures fall into three main categories.

"About a third of the cases that we're seeing now are related to events like parties like clubs and nightclubs that we've seen and about a third are related to transmission within families and community groups and then a third are related to a workplace cluster or outbreaks at long term care homes."—B.C.'s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry

Henry says there is a smaller proportion of cases related to travel.

COVID-19 Testing on Vancouver Island

Meanwhile, people on Vancouver Island are reporting being put on hold for up to 90 minutes when trying to book an appointment to be tested for COVID-19. Some say they made dozens of calls over several days before getting through to the COVID-19 call centre. The call centre saw its highest count of 900 calls on August the 17th. BC's Minister of Health says 70 per cent of calls were abandoned on that day. However, Adrian Dix believes the problem will be fixed soon.

"Island health is actively recruiting staff, extending offers to 45 individuals and recruitment continues. This week, Island Health has more than doubled the number of nurses they have answering calls and will have more nurses and registration clerks starting tomorrow."—Minister of Health, Adrian Dix.

The call centre has extended its hours of operation to seven days a week.