Caution urged as schools get set to reopen Monday

Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches applauds the news that elementary and secondary students in Ottawa can go back to schools Monday but warns that we can't ease up on public health measures against COVID-19.

The province is still under a stayat-home order and children should consider school their essential work, Etches said in a statement. That means not socializing with other children outside school or engaging in extracurricular activities, she said.

Her message was echoed by the co-chair of the province's COVID-19 science table, who said that while the trends across Ontario are positive, the spread of a more contagious U.K. variant of the virus allows little room to relax.

“If we are careful, and if we watch the data carefully, it will be possible to control the spread of the disease with schools open,” said Adalsteinn Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, at a news conference Thursday.

Keeping the community spread of COVID-19 on a downward trajectory won't be easy, but it's possible, Brown said. It will require, he said, continued public health measures — masking, physical distancing, avoiding crowded, confined spaces, handwashing, and robust testing.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced Thursday that 280,000 students in Ottawa and three other regions will be allowed to return to schools on Feb. 1.

Ottawa students have been learning remotely at home since Jan. 4.

“Are there risks in opening schools?” said Ottawa Public Health in a message on Twitter. “Yes. But it's about reducing harms … There's also harms with keeping schools closed.

“Be it families whose routines are in chaos, parents trying to help children with online learning while working from home, people supporting co-workers who need to take time off, children missing out on much-needed social interaction, homes that may not offer a safe space, or the incredible teachers who have worked tirelessly to educate our children remotely … many members of our community are far from OK right now.”

The city remains in the “red” zone under the province's old colour-coded guide to pandemic response.

However, community transmission of the virus was equal or higher in early October, when schools stayed open, Etches has said.

Mary Bishai, an Ottawa physiotherapist who has been taking her four-year-old son and eight-yearold daughter to work with her, said she was ecstatic that schools would reopen.

“Oh my God, I'm super-excited, I almost went into tears.”

Her children have been confined to rooms at her medical clinic all day, doing virtual school, allowed to leave only to go to the washroom. That was particularly hard for Nicholas, a kindergarten student who is full of energy.

“This is going to give us inner peace,” Bishai said. “We will all be less stressed.”

She said she was growing concerned that her children were falling behind in their French-language school, and also becoming unhappy. “They were just not the happy, jumping-around kids that they were” before school closures, she said.

“They will be more focused, more learning, more social interaction, their mental health will be better, their (French) language will improve.”

Education unions and some medical experts maintain they want schools open, too, but argue the government is not doing enough to protect students and staff from the virus.

“It's a tricky one,” said Susan Gardner, president of the union representing elementary teachers at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. “Of course we want children to have learning face-toface.

“But what we also want of course is for students and staff to go back to a safe environment. And it doesn't look like there is much difference in place compared to what it was before.”

Her union has called for safety measures that include: risk assessments for every classroom where students are learning in person; higher-grade personal protective equipment; enhanced and more frequent cleaning protocols in classrooms; portable air-purification units and carbon dioxide monitors for all classrooms that are open; evidence of completion of a COVID -19 symptom screener; reduced class sizes; and expanded voluntary, broad-based asymptomatic testing throughout Ontario.

The government has announced an extension of the mask requirement to include students from Grades 1 to 3.

Testing of asymptomatic students, staff and family members will be done as schools reopen. The details are up to local health units.

The government has also announced that principals must verify that all staff and high school students have completed a COVID -19 symptom checklist before going to school.

Associations representing Ontario principals have objected, saying that will be an administrative nightmare.

Since physical proof is required, will principals look at either a piece of paper or a screenshot on a phone for hundreds of students each day? asks Ann Pace, president of the Ontario Principals' Council.

If students line up outside to show proof, it will create unsafe congregation, while if the verification is done in class that defeats the goal of preventing people with COVID-19 symptoms from entering schools, she said.

Staff and students are already supposed to complete the self-screening quiz daily, so perhaps a campaign to remind them of the importance of compliance is a better idea, she said.

Besides Ottawa, students in the Eastern Ontario, Middlesex-London and Southwestern public health units will be allowed to return to in-person class on Feb. 1.

Students in northern Ontario and seven other largely rural regions in the south have already gone back to school. Thursday's announcement brings the total number of students able to learn in-person to 520,000 across the province.

About 1.5 million students are attending class in person this year, while about 500,000 have opted to study remotely at home.

Schools will resume in-person learning on Feb. 1 in the following Ottawa area school boards: the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the Ottawa Catholic School Board, the Upper Canada District School Board, the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario, the Conseil scolaire de district catholique de l'Est ontarien, the Conseil scolaire de district catholique du Centre-Est de l'Ontario, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.

Are there risks in opening schools? Yes. But it's about reducing harms … There's also harms with keeping schools closed.