Schools reopening depends on community COVID-19 cases, Guelph and area medical officer of health says

Schools may need to remain closed for in-person learning beyond January 25 if community cases of COVID-19 continue to be high, the medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health says.

"I think we all have the same shared goal. We want our children in school, but we want our children in school safely," Dr. Nicola Mercer said during an interview.

Mercer says after students went on break for the holidays in December, public health saw "a dramatic increase of COVID-positive children."

"And this is from children getting COVID from their parents, from their family members or from socializing around the holiday season," she said.

"So we are closely following that. And we want to keep monitoring that, because if I have the same rate of children who are positive when schools reopen, there's going to be a lot of classes that are going to be sent home and that will result in a lot of chaos within the school system."

In Waterloo region, associate medical officer of health Dr. Ryan Van Meer said in an emailed statement that they continue to see cases in young people rise, particularly in the last two months. There are a total of 280 cases in the age group of young people nine years of age and younger. The majority of cases, 189 have happened since Nov. 22: There were 96 cases between Nov. 22 and Dec. 18, the last day of school. There were 93 cases so far during the break from in-person learning between Dec. 18 and Jan. 14.

"Our data suggests that for children, COVID-19 is often transmitted through close contact — from within their household or other social contacts —and transmission within the school setting has occurred less frequently," Van Meer said.

Mercer says she hopes and wants students to be able to return to in-class learning, but it may not be possible.

"If that is not the right week, if it's better to go a week or two later, then I will certainly take that into consideration with my discussions with the school board," she said.

'I'm tired, too'

Mercer says she knows many people in the community have been following public health guidelines and may be feeling tired of more restrictions, like the province's new stay-at-home orders.

"I'm tired, too. I mean, I don't think there's anybody that doesn't want this pandemic to be over, and to be over yesterday," she said.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health reported 53 new cases on Thursday. Since last March, the region has seen 3,389 cases with 2,915 resolved and 56 people's deaths have been linked to the virus.

But with vaccines now in the region, it's a positive step forward. High-risk individuals are getting the vaccine now and as more doses of the vaccines arrive, public health will ramp up inoculating people.

"Certainly by April, you are going to see large numbers of people being offered the vaccine. And we are going to see that it's going to make a difference. It will make a difference by the summer. So hang in there," she said.

"We just can't let our guard down. And we just need to do this now because honestly, the numbers are really quite scary."