COVID-19 vaccination clinics on school grounds and a mask mandate would help to alleviate concerns of virus transmission when children head back to school in September, possibly amid a fourth wave, says Winona Waldron, president of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association.
She said she is especially hearing concerns from elementary teachers about unvaccinated students and is hopeful the province will set up clinics in schools, where anybody can get vaccinated.
“I think the easiest way to deal with it is to have clinics in schools, to make sure that anyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated,” said Waldron.
For students under age 12 for whom there’s not yet an approved vaccine, “there’s been more and more questions about a mask mandate for elementary students.”
Waldron supports a mask mandate and said educators learned last year that young children can effectively and comfortably wear them.
B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Teri Mooring said the school year should start with a mask mandate because the Delta variant is highly contagious, daily case counts are rising, kids under age 12 can’t be vaccinated, and according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control only 20 per cent of those age 12 to 19 are fully vaccinated.
Waldron was hopeful in June that the return to school would look more like pre-pandemic days with the only remnants of the pandemic being better ventilation and better infection control.
“But we’re not in that place, and I am concerned that the province has taken quite a long time to react to where we are at and make a really clear plan for September that keeps everybody safe,” said Waldron.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said a lot of information and data has been collected around the pandemic and what happened in schools last year and she and B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix will have more to say on the plan for schools “late next week.”
“We are committed to the importance of in-class learning, not just for educational growth but for emotional and physical growth, and we know it’s so important for children and for families,” said Henry.
She stressed the need for parents, teachers and students age 12 and older to get vaccinated. “That protects not just them, but it protects the school community and it protects the younger children who aren’t able yet to receive the vaccine.
Asked whether a vaccination mandate similar to that announced Thursday for long-term care facilities could be put in place for businesses, hospitals and schools, Henry said when she considers putting in place a public health order she does so proportional to the risk.
The risk of serious illness and death related to COVID in a long-term care resident is high, for example, she said.
“So if we look at schools, we don’t see a high risk of severe illness. We don’t see any deaths associated with schools. We see that schools are a safe place, for example.”
As well, there was a large drop-off in cases when teachers and school staff were immunized “which we’ve prioritized,” said Henry.
Henry said there’s potential that at least one vaccine — made by Pfizer — will be available for people younger than 12 “maybe by the end of this calendar year, if we’re lucky, maybe into November.”
Both Pfizer and Moderna have been doing what’s called “dosing studies” — setting a lower dose for children age six to 12 years and an even lower one for six months to six years.
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