Children low risk of virus infection
Less than one per cent B.C. children and youth who’ve been tested for COVID-19 have been diagnosed with the disease, Kelowna-area parents are being told.
In an apparent effort to calm any misgivings parents might have about sending their children back to school on Monday, health officials are reassuring them that the risk to young people from COVID19 is considered to be extremely low.
And with the spread of the disease having “decreased significantly” in the Interior Health region, medical health officer Dr. Silvina Mema says there is little risk of COVID-19 outbreaks in area schools.
About half of the Central Okanagan’s 23,000 K-12 students are expected to return to schools on a parttime basis next week. Instruction will be for two days a week at the elementary level, and one day a week for middle and high school students.
“Compared to adults, children are less likely to become infected with COVID-19, less likely to develop severe illness as a result of infection, and less likely to transmit the infection to others,” Mema writes in an email sent Wednesday to all parents, teachers, and school administrators.
“In B.C., less than one per cent of children and youth tested have been COVID-19 positive,” Mema writes. “Children who have developed COVID-19 have mostly acquired it from adults in the household setting.”
In the Interior Health region, 194 people have tested positive for COVID19. Two people have died and one is in hospital. A total of 187, or 96 per cent of patients, have recovered, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.
Of the 194 people who were affected in the Interior Health region, only four have been under 19 years of age. All have recovered.
A variety of new COVID-19-related protocols will be in place when schools restart on Monday.
Everyone will have to wash their hands several times during the day; schools will be more thoroughly cleaned and disinfected; recesses will be staggered to lower the number of kids gathered together; physical distancing of two metres will be attempted, but Mema acknowledges this “may not be feasible and is not expected at all times in the school setting.”
The wearing of non-medical masks, by students, teachers or anyone else in a school, will not be mandatory, but people may choose to use them.
“Personal protective equipment such as medical masks and gloves are not recommended in the school environment unless they are part of the regular precautions staff use for their role,” Mema says.