Dr. Kit Young Hoon said Friday she has recommended to Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, that schools in the NWHU’s vast catchment area could safely reopen as early as next week.
The province called for input on the potential reopening of schools in June in a letter sent on Thursday to health units, hospitals, teachers’ unions, and other health and education organizations.
The recommendation to reopen schools was fuelled by the health unit’s low case counts, as well as available evidence suggesting schools were not significant drivers of transmission, Young Hoon said at a Friday press conference.
Recent provincial modelling suggested opening schools could be associated with a 6 to 11 per cent increase in COVID-19 cases.
Even before teachers had the chance to be vaccinated with a first dose beginning earlier this month, she suggested measures like masking and distancing in schools seemed to have been sufficient to prevent spread in the region.
“Up to now, the general evidence plus our experience in the Northwestern Health Unit does show those public health measures have reduced transmission of COVID-19 in schools,” she said. “For our catchment area, we’ve had very little, maybe next to no transmission in school settings. Overall, I think that supports that schools can be reopened [here].”
A first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine generally provides 60 to 80 per cent protection, Young Hoon said, with some research trials suggest it could be higher.
“If you combine that protection, along with all of the other public health measures that are implemented in schools, teachers can go back to school with only one dose of the vaccine,” she said.
The recommendation also took into account the toll of school closures on children and their families.
“It’s also important to think about the risks of keeping schools closed,” Young Hoon said. “It’s recognized that school closures have a number of negative health [impacts] – it decreases physical activity, generally seen to decrease nutrition, as well as some mental health effects.”
All publicly funded and private schools in Ontario have been closed since April 12.
Young Hoon expressed hope the recommendations from agencies like hers would help the province make a “timely” decision on reopening.
Health and education officials in the neighbouring Thunder Bay District Health Unit have questioned the timing of the province’s letter, with only about four weeks left in the school year.
