Families, experts question school reopening plans as COVID-19 cases remain high

TORONTO

COVID-19’s winter surge has kept Kimberleigh Armstrong’s three kids out of the classroom longer than anticipated, but she fears the risks of returning next week as scheduled.

Spiking cases and hospitalizations offer the Toronto mom little assurance the pandemic is under control, and she wonders if classmates and their families socialized over the holidays.

“It makes me nervous because I don’t know where those kids were,” says Armstrong, who’d prefer inclass instruction be delayed at least two weeks.

“Do I want my kids to go back after one week? Not necessarily. But on the other hand, I do, because I know for my son, especially, he has issues and he needs that socialization.”

The new year has brought increasing uncertainty for many families left on tenterhooks, wondering how they can be sure when it’s safe to resume classes.

Infectious disease experts point to myriad factors that could fuel back-to-school spread, including colder weather that will force more time spent indoors, unaddressed ventilation issues that aid airborne transmission, and a new COVID-19 variant that is more easily spread.

Occupational hygienist Kevin Hedges, who specializes in recognizing and controlling workplace hazards, says financial and mental health concerns must be weighed against lockdown strategies.

But if community transmission is high and containment measures such as adequate ventilation and public health precautions are not fully in place, he questions whether schools should reopen in coming weeks.

“The numbers are going up. So, when the numbers are going up, why would we think about reopening schools? It’s as simple as that,” Hedges says from Ottawa.

Any reopening plan must include a commitment to a “bundle” of infection control measures to limit the chance of school outbreaks, agrees

Dr. Ronald Cohn, president and CEO of The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

He says that includes proper ventilation, mandatory masking, physical distancing, cohorting, handwashing and more robust testing.

Cohn says the question of whether holiday gatherings have caused a spike in COVID-19 infections should be known by the end of the week, but that secondary infections spawned by holiday revellers may not be evident until after many schools reopen next week.