Toronto aims to build vaccine confidence in preparation for vaccinating kids against COVID-19

While the City of Toronto is waiting on the green light for children aged five to 11 to be approved for the COVID-19 vaccine, the city is trying to build vaccine confidence through conducting outreach and education sessions.

All parents of children aged five to 11 attending public and independent schools can expect an invitation to participate in a survey to support vaccination planning.

Toronto Public Health and the City of Toronto’s VaxTO campaign have launched the survey to better understand parents’ intent to vaccinate their children and how they would prefer to have their children receive their COVID-19 vaccine.

The city also says socio-demographic factors such as race are being considered when it comes to vaccinating kids.

The survey, which will be open until Nov. 7, includes 15 questions that will be sent directly to parents and guardians through Toronto school boards.

A copy of the survey is also available online in multiple languages.

Another survey by Forum Research finds nearly 70 per cent of parents say their children will get the vaccine once it is approved.

Approximately 20 per cent of parents surveyed say they remain unsure — only 10 per cent of respondents intend to keep their kids unvaccinated.

The poll finds the parents that will not vaccinate their children were more likely to be unvaccinated themselves, or know someone who had a serious adverse reaction to the vaccine.

However, TPH says receiving two doses of the vaccine will reduce the chance that a child will unknowingly pass the virus to their classmates or family members.

While many families await this approval from Health Canada, the province says it won’t be adding COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of immunizations for students to attend school.

The province’s top doctor Dr. Kieran Moore said Thursday it would be an additional burden to public health agencies, parents and children to add COVID-19 shots to the list of vaccinations students must report.

He said the government is working with boards and public health units to compile the vaccination status of students to enable better contact tracing and outbreak management.

Just over a month into the school year, Silverthorn Collegiate Institute became the first school in the TPH unit to temporarily close due to a COVID-19 outbreak.

Shortly after, all students at Greenholme Junior Middle School temporarily returned to remote learning because of another outbreak.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced on Thursday that all public schools in Ontario will receive take-home COVID-19 tests beginning in mid-November.

“We are providing take-home PCR tests to all schools, for all grades, for both symptomatic students and close contact asymptomatic cases for students and staff,” Lecce said.

Students who come down with COVID-19 symptoms, or have been in close contact with a confirmed case, will be able to pick up a PCR test at their school. The completed test can then be dropped off “at convenient locations in the community,” the Ministry said.

Mayor John Tory said Friday he wants to hear from parents so the city can design a vaccination campaign that works for them.

“This is just one more example of the outreach we are doing to prepare for this effort. This work is so important and will help us get kids vaccinated so they have the best protection against COVID-19 and so our schools can be as safe and as open as possible,” he said.