In a letter addressed to Ontario Premier Doug Ford Saturday, the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table said that “schools can reopen on a regional basis.”
The letter said that schools that do reopen “should maintain their public health measures vigorously and build on the strategies they have already deployed to limit spread.”
Earlier this week, Ford sent a letter asking for doctors for expert opinions on whether schools should reopen amid the third wave of the pandemic in Ontario. The deadline for feedback was 5 p.m. yesterday.
Modelling from the Science Table suggests that the total increase in COVID-19 cases that would come from school reopening is “small.”
The Science Table letter called school closures necessary as COVID numbers surged but noted the harm it has on both students and their families.
“While the pandemic was surging, school closures were a necessary step to control that surge. However, school closures create harm. Surveys show a substantial deterioration of mental health status among children and youth during the pandemic,” the Science Table letter said.
“This deterioration is now evident in the form of increased ambulatory care use and hospital admissions, most poignantly for children and youth with eating disorders. We believe these mental health indicators represent the tip of the iceberg and that children and youth mental health will present significant long-term challenges during our recovery from the pandemic.”
The closures also “create ripple effects for both children and their families as the social and economic benefits of education go unrealized. These include losses of skills development, losses in lifetime earnings for Ontarians, losses of social connections and, for some Ontarians, even missing meals and other critical health services. Like so much of the pandemic, these harms and missed benefits are inequitable: those whom the pandemic is hitting hardest are also hardest hit by school closures.”
The letter addressed the concern of transmission outside of schools as well.
It notes that the B.1.617.2 variant (first identified in India) is a significant unknown.
To address the uncertainty, the Science Table suggests making sure there is access to first doses of the vaccine for all eligible Ontarians and accelerate second doses for people who are the most vulnerable to the virus. While this is being done, they recommend keeping other sectors closed until they are reopened by the framework.
"We must keep case numbers low enough during the next three months to ensure a return to consistent, in-person schooling in September," reads the letter.
The stay-at-home order in Ontario is in place until at least June 2. The province's roadmap to reopening is expected to start on June 14.
Yesterday, Ontario also revealed a plan to accelerate access to second doses of the vaccine.
Following the completion of the school year, the summer months could then be used to increase safety in the schools ahead of the 2021-22 school year, according to the Science Table.
“The summer will provide an ideal time to make the whole school system even safer by continuing to improve ventilation in school buildings and by vaccinating students. Moreover, Ontario should now start developing recovery plans to address the long-term mental health, health and educational problems arising from COVID-19-related school closures. This will require investments.”
Ford addressed the school closure issue on Friday saying that in addition to input from Dr. David Williams, he wanted “scientists to weigh in.”
“I want to make sure the teachers’ unions weigh-in,” Ford added. “I want other educational workers to weigh in. I don’t want to rush this.”
