Thread by @KmarkovCTV

This is an update on Edmonton Public Schools COVID/illness/absence numbers. I have been collecting this data daily since Jan 2022. Thank you to @EPSBNews for making it available for as long as you have. #edmonton #yeg #covidab

This first graph tells the biggest story. In purple are absences related to COVID-19, in blue are absences due to other illness. As you can see, when students returned to school in January, there was a significant amount of COVID-19 going around. Absences due to other illnesses..

were also quite high. Throughout the year absences due to other illness grew well above COVID-19. I am not an expert, but I believe this was caused by a lack of testing moving potential COVID-19 cases into the 'other illness' category because COVID cases often aren't confirmed.

Fast forward to now and there is a massive surge in what is being described as 'respiratory illness'. AHS says that there are currently 22 respiratory outbreaks at schools in the Edmonton Zone. An outbreak requires 10% of a schools population to be absent at once.

AHS says it declares respiratory illness outbreaks in schools based on symptoms and that students are not tested, and therefore it is unknown which specific illness is affecting a school population.

Currently, Edmonton Public Schools is experiencing the highest average student absenteeism caused by 'other illness' in all of 2022, even in the height of the pandemic and September's numbers are only based on 13 school days/data points.

Another reflection of this is the graph below. It may look chaotic, but from it one can confirm that the number of absences due to illness other than COVID fluctuates here and there, but stays mainly stable on a monthly basis. Sept 2022 however is quickly setting itself apart.

This is student absences from EPSB due to COVID-19 in 2022. I layered each month on top of each other and removed Jan and Feb as they made the rest of the months hard to analyze. So far Sept. has been lower than any other month, but is slowly overtaking June's numbers.

But remember, June is at the end of the year when students are taking exams, and the weather is warmer etc. all contributing to lower numbers. But I will keep watching to see where the numbers go.

Some of these respiratory illnesses could be COVID-19, but it's not possible to confirm that. But really all that means is that we will need to pay more attention to absences caused by other illness/absenteeism numbers in general rather than to just those related to COVID.

This is the monthly average percentage of students absent from EPSB schools in 2022 due to any illness - reported as COVID-19 or otherwise. This puts us at similar numbers to March.