B.C. schools have been on the receiving end of several announcements in recent weeks regarding health and safety protocols, including a newly expanded mask mandate.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on Tuesday, Oct. 12 announced that the existing public health order requiring mask-wearing in indoor public spaces like stores, restaurants and public transportation will now apply to B.C. children between the ages of five and 11, too.
The move falls in line with a previous order requiring all B.C. students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 to wear masks in class that went into effect on Oct. 4.
“I just want to say how impressed I am. I continue to be amazed at the adaptability and the resilience of children across this province,” Henry said. “Many of them have told me that they know how to wear a mask now, and that it’s something they do to keep themselves safe; to keep their families safe. I just want to say thank you.”
Not included in B.C.’s current COVID-19 safety plan for schools, however, is a province-wide vaccine mandate for teachers. B.C. Premier John Horgan on Oct. 7 announced that the province will not require its teachers to be fully vaccinated in order to continue working, as it has for employees like transit workers, long-term care staff and provincial public servants. Instead, Horgan said, that decision is being left up to individual school districts.
What that means for Whistler’s school district (SD48) and its staff currently remains unknown. “The announcement this week was new information for the board and we will need time to review the implications for our district,” read an emailed statement from SD48. ‘The board will consult with Vancouver Coastal Health and our local medical health officer to determine what actions are appropriate.”
BC Teachers’ Federation president Teri Mooring, meanwhile, voiced the union’s support for such a mandate for K-12 school staff and urged its members to get vaccinated if they have not done so already.
“At this point, I am very concerned that a potential vaccine mandate could be implemented district-by-district, employer-by-employer,” she wrote in a letter to members on Oct. 8 “Any vaccine mandate would need to be provincially implemented and done equitably. We can’t have unequal treatment of workers in the public education system.”
With vaccine mandates for teachers still up in the air, the province is already setting its sights on vaccinating more students.
Although there are no COVID-19 vaccines currently approved for use in children under 12, Pfizer, earlier this month, requested that its COVID-19 vaccine be authorized for use in children aged five to 11 in the U.S. According to a company spokesperson, Pfizer is aiming to file a formal submission for authorization to Health Canada in the coming days. While health authorities await the agency’s authorization of the paediatric vaccine, B.C. kids in that age bracket can pre-register to get vaccinated.
Until vaccines are available, SD48’s existing health and safety protocols, in place since the onset of the pandemic, will continue. Vancouver Coastal Health confirmed to Pique that as of Oct. 12, it has never declared a COVID-19 outbreak recorded in any of Whistler’s schools, and said cases of COVID-19 among the school population reflects virus transmission in the community.
VCH’s website currently warns parents about two possible COVID-19 exposure events at Sea to Sky schools: one at Signal Hill Elementary School, with the date of potential exposure listed as Oct. 4, and another at Squamish Elementary, with the potential exposure listed as having taken place on Oct. 1 and Oct. 4-5.
This comes amidst a rising number of COVID-19 cases in children that has been recorded across the province this fall, as overall case numbers stabilized. According to the independent BC COVID-19 Modelling Group—a collective of experts that continues to chart the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in B.C.—the COVID-19 infections among British Columbians younger than 10, at the beginning of October, were higher than at any other time in the pandemic, though the Vancouver Coastal Health authority has not experienced as dramatic an uptick in childhood cases as its Fraser Health, Vancouver Island and Interior counterparts.
According to VCH, testing rates spiked across the province in all age groups between Sept. 19 and 25, shortly after the school year started. The largest increases in testing numbers were for children, most prominently in five- to nine-year-olds. According to the health authority, testing rates nearly doubled from 1,933 per 100,000 recorded between Sept. 12 to 18 to 3,731 per 100,000 during the week of Sept. 19 to 25.
This marked “the highest testing rate of any age group so far in 2021,” a VCH spokesperson explained. Testing rates have also notably increased in the 10- to 14-year-old age group from 1,221 per 100,000 the week of Sept. 12 to 2,273 per 100,000 one week later, according to the health authority.
However, VCH cautioned that more than 90 per cent of people tested for the virus do not have COVID-19, as other respiratory infections like the common cold continue to circulate.
Children under 12 make up nearly half of the province’s unvaccinated population, and are more likely to be asymptomatic if infected, according to the independent modelling group.
In the Howe Sound Local Health Area (LHA)—which encapsulates Britannia Beach, Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton and parts of the southern Stl’atl’mx Nation—total weekly case counts have remained steady in recent weeks, hovering between the high-20s- to low-30s. There were 28 positive cases recorded from Sept. 27 to Oct. 2 down from 37 the week prior and 39 between Sept. 12 to 18. From Sept. 5 to 11, the Howe Sound LHA logged 29 cases, down from 34 the week before that.
The B.C. government estimated in July that the province’s total population is 5,147,712. Based on that number, Pique calculated that nearly 80 per cent of B.C.’s total population has had at least one dose of vaccine, and more than 74.4 per cent of the province’s total population has had two doses.
According to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (CDC), 86 per cent of Howe Sound LHA residents aged 12 and over have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 95 per cent have received at least one dose.
B.C. CDC data also shows that 75 per cent of residents aged 12-17 have received two doses, and 86 per cent of residents aged 18-49 have received two doses. Ninety per cent of Howe Sound LHA residents aged 50 and up have received two doses.
—With files from Glen Korstrom and the Canadian Press.
