The head of the Yukon Association of Education Professionals says COVID-19 is still rumbling through territorial schools.

Ted Hupé told the Star this morning that while the situation has improved somewhat this spring over what was happening during the winter, absenteeism amongst students and teachers has been steady.

It’s just not being publicized by the government, he pointed out.

It’s an out-of-sight, out-of-mind situation, he said.

“COVID-19 is alive and well,” Hupé said.

With changes in testing and reporting making it more difficult to analyze statistics, dealing with the pandemic has gone from being reasonably well reported to its current status as a “free-for-all”, Hupé said.

It’s not uncommon for teachers or students to have prolonged absences of a week or longer as they deal with the virus, but no one talks about it anymore, he said.

At one time, staff and students were under more pressure to report their positive cases, but now there’s no onus.

When people are absent for a week or more, Hupé said, there’s a presumption they’ve had COVID-19, but no one knows for sure.

“There’s no stigma to it anymore,” he said.

The Star has received informal and anecdotal accounts that some schools were seeing as few as eight students attending in the last week.

Hupé agreed that roughly matched what he is hearing, although he declined to identify any specific schools experiencing problems.

Prior to May, elementary schools were being hit hardest by the virus, he said, but now it’s across the board.

“It doesn’t matter how many students are out,” he said. “It’s the number of teachers that matters (for purposes of keeping classes operating). That’s the reality.”

Technically, Department of Education regulations that are in place state that any irregular pattern of absenteeism, or rates of more than 10 per cent of students and/or teachers, should be reported to the department.

However, Hupé said the rates have been at and above 10 per cent for so long it’s become the new normal, so the definition of what’s unusual is now being stretched.

“I couldn’t tell you what the standard is now,” Hupé told the Star.

It’s up to the school principals to make that call, he pointed out, adding to their responsibilities and stress.

The availability of substitute teachers and support staff such as educational assistants continues to be a challenge, Hupé said.

There simply aren’t enough to go around, he said flatly.

No one from the department was available to discuss Hupé’s concerns before press time this afternoon.

The numbers for COVID-19 cases in the territory are remaining fairly stable.

According to Friday afternoon’s numbers, as posted by the government, there were 48 active cases and eight new diagnoses.

The testing positivity rate is 29.4 per cent.

Data from the past weekend were unavailable this morning.