'Why isn't our government doing as much as possible?': Ontario reacts to Stephen Lecce's return to school plan with emphasis on COVID-19 rapid tests
Stephen Lecce, Ontario's education minister, provided additional details on the return to in-person learning at schools across the province on Jan. 17.
"We believe so strongly that children need to be in school, that they are essential to the mental and physical health of a child, and their academic success," Lecce said.
The Ontario government will provide rapid antigen tests for students and staff in public elementary and secondary schools, and children and staff in child care settings.
Two tests will be allocated to each child and staff member. Symptomatic individuals should take two rapid tests 24 hours apart, and can return to school if negative.
Limited time cohort protocols will also be in place for extra curricular sports and lunch periods.
Only when the absence level at a school reaches 30 per cent, parents will then be alerted through their local public health unit.
While parents will not get updates on COVID-19 cases in a school, until that 30 per cent threshold is reached, Ontario officials stressed that it should "empower" parents that they will be provided with rapid tests if they are questioning sending their child to school.
"The empowerment capacity is having the test in your home," Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of heath said on Wednesday. "You have an answer very quickly that empowers the parent to make the decision to keep their child home and to follow the guidelines of monitoring for five days."
"That is going to help empower parents with greater certainty to know if they have the virus," Lecce added.
When asked why Ontario has not mandated vaccination at school, Dr. Moore said this is a "new" vaccine and wants "more experience with it" before making it mandatory.
Ontarians, including infectious disease and health experts, took to social media to comment on the return to in-person school.
Honest question: When only 47% of children 5-11 years old in Ontario have their 1st dose of the COVID vaccine, why isn't our government doing as much as possible to vaccinate as many children as possible before schools officially open on January 17th?
— Dr. Amit Arya (@AmitAryaMD) January 12, 2022
Health experts, educators & parents: We need more information to protect our children in school!
Ontario government: Okay. We will wait until 30% of students & staff are absent before we notify parents about an outbreak in their child’s classroom.
🤯— Naheed Dosani (@NaheedD) January 12, 2022
If having two RATs is empowering for parents, knowing that a child(ren) in their kids' class has #COVID is likely just as empowering.
Transparency and contemporaneous information would allow parents to make the best decisions for their kids health.— Michael Warner (@drmwarner) January 12, 2022
Having high quality, up-to-date information is vital for making good decisions.
Businesses & governments rely on it.
Guided by 30% absenteeism threshold (reported to PH), parents will have no information when assessing the risk of sending their kid into the classroom each day.— Michael Warner (@drmwarner) January 12, 2022
We already require kids in Ontario to be vaccinated against 9 diseases to attend school.
There's an exemption process, so unvaccinated kids can still attend school.
Making Covid the 10th disease on this list would help persuade many vaccine hesitant parents...— Irfan Dhalla (@IrfanDhalla) January 12, 2022
...that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective.
It would also send a message that we as a society care about kids, teachers and others who are immunocompromised.
I think it's going to happen sooner or later, and the sooner we signal this will be happening the better.— Irfan Dhalla (@IrfanDhalla) January 12, 2022
Only 40% of COVID-19 cases are symptomatic. When 30% of a school is absent, at least 75% of the school would be infected.
This symptom reporting tool is literally the only proactive tool we have left.
Please share widely.https://t.co/jrj8T4l2TN— Ryan Imgrund (@imgrund) January 12, 2022