There wasn’t much new coming out of this morning’s weekly COVID-19 briefing.

Premier Sandy Silver and André Corriveau, the acting chief medical officer of health, spent more than half an hour putting the best spin on the current virus situation.

Corriveau – who is filling in for Dr. Catherine Elliott for two weeks – said the current numbers show there are 157 active cases in the territory. Six of them are hospitalized, but he offered no further information.

Of the cases recorded since June, 29 per cent are breakthrough infections among fully vaccinated people.

The remainder are amongst partially-vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

The cases amongst the vaccinated people are “milder and shorter” than amongst those who aren’t vaccinated or who only have one shot.

Corriveau noted the booster shots for those over 50 being offered by the government in recent weeks have been extremely popular.

More than 4,000 shots have been delivered so far.

Demographic information shows that 30 per cent of cases “in the last little while” are in the under-12 age groups. That’s a demographic that isn’t approved to receive vaccinations as of yet.

Interestingly, those cases, according to Corriveau, aren’t being contracted at schools, despite the number of cases.

Instead, he suggested, students are acquiring the infections at home and in the community instead, although he offered no details as to how that conclusion was reached.

Despite a rising number of cases in schools, Corriveau said he doesn’t believe there is a compelling reason to close them down as of yet.

He also suggested the interpretation of the evidence at hand suggests there are many undetected and/or untested COVID-19 cases in the territory.

Still, Corriveau believes the current outbreak is beginning to plateau, although Yukoners might still see some increases and around 30 infections a day being recorded.

Silver also addressed the controversy that boiled over Tuesday when it was revealed teachers are eligible for rapid testing (see coverage).

When he was told the Yukon Teachers’ Association was not aware of that, Silver said he was surprised to hear that.

“I wasn’t aware of that lack of understanding on the teachers’ part,” Silver said.

He said he would look into the situation further and see what could be done.

Corriveau, in response to a reporter’s question, said the situation with rapid testing is still being studied, and more information will soon follow.

Neither man had an answer for another reporter’s question dealing with a significant discrepancy in the numbers of active cases between the Yukon and federal government sites.

A reader provided the Star with the figures – which were verified – showing the Yukon has 224 active cases by federal information sources, while the Yukon government had recorded just 164 active cases.

Silver said he will look into that discrepancy.

See letters.