Manitoba's top doctor says he does not know what this fall's COVID case load will look like for students.
The fourth wave of COVID-19 is coming, Dr. Brent Roussin says, but how severe it will be depends on how well people follow the health orders. Projections released last week show three scenarios for the whole province, but specifics on schools are unknown.
"It's difficult to predict but it's all going to be tightly linked to how we can maintain the community transmission of the virus," Roussin says.
The 2020 school year started off with a significant number of cases and exposures. The doctor is expecting vaccine mandates or testing for school staff to have an impact on overall cases, but how much is unknown.
Dr. Joss Reimer, Manitoba's COVID-19 vaccine task force medical lead, says all schools will be visited by an immunization team this year, starting with low-uptake areas. Some of these areas with the lowest uptake rates recently had large gatherings, protesting the new orders and mandates over the weekend which include mandatory testing or vaccinations of school staff.
"We've done some epidemiologic analysis and provided a list of schools by uptake to each of the Regional Health authorities so that they can then prioritize depending on those uptake numbers," Reimer says.
This will be for students in Grades 6 until 12 if they were born in or before 2009. Pfizer will be used.
The 2021-2022 school year is seeing some changes for students, specifically those in Grades 7 to 12. Earlier it was announced they would not need to be on cohorts. Roussin says they have recommended upgrades to school ventilation systems.
"The message to people who are not yet fully vaccinated is to continue to speak to providers, voice your concerns, listen to some of the advice, and then consider getting vaccinated," Roussin says, noting the impact vaccine has on cases, and subsequently the health orders.
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