Elementary schools, daycares in Quebec may soon reopen

MONTREAL—Premier François Legault launched the first step of Quebec’s recovery plan from COVID-19 on Monday, saying that as long as the health-care system doesn’t become overwhelmed between now and then, elementary schools and daycares in most of the province will reopen in two weeks.

Legault set May 11 as reopening day for schools and daycares outside greater Montreal, with Montreal to follow suit the next week on May 19. He said attendance won’t be mandatory.

High schools, junior colleges and universities in the province will remain closed until September.

Legault said he will present the second part of his recovery plan, regarding how to reopen the economy, on Tuesday.

Quebec is experiencing two separate worlds in the COVID-19 pandemic, Legault said, trying to explain his rationale for opening up parts of the province despite hundreds of new cases of the virus being reported every day.

Long-term care homes and seniors residences continue to be devastated by COVID-19 — 80 per cent of Quebec’s 1,599 COVID deaths come from those two types of facilities. But everywhere else, Legault said, particularly in the province’s hospitals, “the situation is under control.”

He added that the virus typically doesn’t seriously affect children. Therefore, he said, if the outbreaks don’t escape seniors residences, and intensive care units of hospitals continue to be manageable, the province can slowly begin to reopen.

Legault and his province’s director of public health, Dr. Horacio Arruda, had been pushing the idea of so-called “herd immunity” or natural immunity, as an argument in favour of reopening schools. That strategy involves exposing children to the coronavirus in a measured, gradual way, to help them develop a natural immunity.

That notion was criticized on the weekend by Canada’s chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, who said younger people are still at risk.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there is no conclusive evidence that people who have recovered from the virus have antibodies that protect them from getting infected again.

But Legault said Monday his decision to reopen schools was not based on a strategy of developing natural immunity.

He said his reasons are that special needs children need to be followed closely by the teachers; the risk to young people from COVID-19 is limited; COVID-19 admissions in hospitals are under control; and public health has agreed the schools should open.

The final reason is that “life needs to continue,” Legault said.