Ontario science table says schools must weigh pros and cons of temporary COVID measures
Posted August 25, 2022 3:23 pm.
Last Updated August 25, 2022 3:56 pm.
The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table has come out with a list of recommendations aimed at keeping children in classrooms this fall.
In a brief published Thursday, the group says in-person schooling is “essential” for not only academic growth but also the development of social, emotional and life skills.
The science table says in order to help limit the spread of COVID a number of permanent measures should be in place in all schools such as maintaining adequate indoor air quality, environmental cleaning and disinfection, hand hygiene, and students and staff staying home when sick.
“Efforts should be made to ensure equitable distribution of these permanent measures between schools and communities in order to support safe in-person learning for all children,” the group says.
The brief goes on to say that while temporary measures such as masking, cohorting and testing can help reduce the transmission of COVID in schools, it calls for careful consideration of the potential benefits and negative consequences before reintroducing these measures.
“These temporary measures are not expected to be required at the start of the 2022 school year,” it says.
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The science table notes that throughout the pandemic Ontario had the longest school closures for in-person learning compared to other provinces and many North American and European jurisdictions, adding that school closures should be considered as part of a communicable disease control strategy in only the most catastrophic of circumstances.
The recommendations echo what the science table called for a year ago when it said schools should remain open for in-person learning, “barring catastrophic circumstances.”
At that time it called for similar permanent measures “irrespective of the COVID-19 pandemic” to be implemented while also calling on schools to re-introduce extracurricular acitivies.
