Children walk back to their classroom while physical distancing after getting their pictures taken at picture day at St. Barnabas Catholic School during the COVID-19 pandemic in Scarborough, Ont.One morning this week, Jeff Crane pulled into the parking lot of the public school where he has worked for more than eight years, but this time, he had to show identification to gain entry. He was not annoyed – rather, he was heartened.
“We did as much as we could to prevent spread here,” Mr. Crane said. Class sizes were capped at 20, portable air purifiers placed in classrooms, COVID-19 tests were accessible to the community, and there was more than enough personal protective equipment for staff and the kids. He paused. “Hopefully,” he added, “it will be better in the fall.”
Earlier this month, Quebec rolled out its back-to-school plan that included no masks or classroom bubbles if vaccination rates climb higher and the COVID-19 situation remains manageable. Similarly, British Columbia said this week that students there would be back full-time in the fall, no longer grouped by classroom cohorts. The use of masks in schools would be decided later in the summer, the B.C. government said.
Dr. Leis said that provincial governments and school boards may need to keep some of the existing health and safety measures in place “because we don’t have quite all the variables accounted for, and we will see how things are in the fall.” Jeffrey Pernica, head of the pediatric infectious-disease division at Hamilton’s McMaster University, said that there is no reason schools should not look more normal for students in the fall, including the return to extracurricular activities.
It is clear that school-age children, as a group, tend to be less affected by COVID-19 than adults, but of greater concern is their role in spreading the virus and what that might look like when more adults are vaccinated.
Pandemic is not over.
Who's supervising all the heating & ventilating contractors and other 'improvement' work Sflecce announced funds for while the schools have been shut & continue to be through the summer. Steve appears interested in sticking to the safety of Zoom calls with constituents & PCMPPs?
Why can’t it go back to normal if your precious vaccine works like you all think…kids aren’t the super spreaders once thought and the vaccine doesn’t stop covid we have witnessed in the past few weeks fully vaccinated people getting covid and dying from covid
Vaccination must be compulsory for all teachers & all other school staff as there is no vaccine for those under 12, which leaves them vulnerable to infection.
You are enemies of the Canadian people. News outlets in this country must be dismantled and reformed.
They are putting normal in quotes because they know the old normal is no longer and will never exist again.
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