The president of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association says she’s disappointed that the province didn’t expand its mask mandate to children from kindergarten to Grade 3, as cases of COVID in children ages five to 12 increase.
On Monday, the Vancouver School Board passed a motion requiring children from kindergarten to Grade 3 to wear masks in school, becoming the first district to go beyond a provincial requirement that only students in Grade 4 and higher wear masks.
Winona Waldron said she was hopeful the provincial health officer would expand the mask mandate to the entire province on Tuesday. “I’m disappointed — I’d like to see a mass mandate for K-3 and I’d like to be very carefully looking at what other safety measures we can put into elementary schools until that age when children can be vaccinated,” said Waldron.
“I’m tired of this conversation that if all the adults just get vaccinated, then everything will be fine, because I don’t think that’s been an issue in Victoria. I think we have a high rate of vaccination and yet kids here are getting sick.
“We need to put other safety measures in place.”
In her weekly COVID briefing on Tuesday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry presented updated modelling showing cases are rising among children ages five to 12. COVID vaccines have been approved for those 12 and older, but vaccines for those for five through 11 have yet to be licensed.
“The rates that we’re seeing right now of COVID-19 per 100,000 population is going up quite dramatically, particularly in those younger school-aged children who are not yet eligible for vaccination,” said Henry.
Positive cases in children ages 5 to 11 are at 25 to 30 per 100,000 population this month. At the beginning of August, the rate was less than five per 100,000.
Rates in unvaccinated children are generally “low and steady” on Vancouver Island, where vaccination rates are higher than other parts of the province, said Henry. The north and central Island have seen higher positive test rates, however.
“The cases that we’re seeing are much more likely to be from families where adults in the family are not yet immunized or in settings where there are older children or adults that are not yet immunized,” Henry said.
She said the trajectory and number of cases among school-aged children reflect overall community vaccination rates. “It’s protection in our community that protects our schools and protects our children.”
Modelling shows an increase in the last week in positive tests in all age groups of children.
“We have seen two cases in the zero-to-four age group who have been hospitalized, and one child each of the five-to-11 and 12-to-17 who have needed to have hospital care in the last week,” said Henry. “We have a single child in the zero-to-four age group who has required critical care in that period of time.”
Thankfully, she said, there have been no deaths among school-aged children. “We hope that that will continue.”
Henry said health authorities have started posting potential COVID exposures in elementary and secondary schools on their websites, and there will be a link on the B.C. Centre for Disease Control website for all of the regional health authorities — “similar to what we did last year.”
People who are deemed at increased risk will be notified directly.
Last year, a letter was sent to all schools with a COVID exposure, but that approach was not effective in terms of spreading information or supporting decreasing transmission in schools, said Henry.
Instead, health authorities will post if someone attended a school while infectious and there is a possibility of transmission to others, she said.
“What we will have is an authoritative source where people can go to find out if there has been exposure events at their school, but it remains critical that parents monitor their [children’s] health daily.”
