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Southwestern public health officials are recommending that children get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible as they again resume in-person schooling in the region.
“With schools back in, I would really like to see more children (from) the ages of five to 11 being vaccinated. Approximately 40 per cent of our five- to 11-year-olds have at least one dose, meaning we are trailing the province’s provincial average by about 10 per cent,” said Dr. Joyce Lock, the region’s medical officer of health.
Acknowledging some parents remain hesitant to get their children immunized, Lock emphasized the vaccine is “safe and effective for children, and for everyone else.”
“We in the public health world are highly committed to keeping students in class. It’s a much better place for them, even with COVID, than not being in class,” Lock said.
To help get more children vaccinated, two more pop-up clinics are scheduled in the Oxford and Elgin-St. Thomas region.
The first clinic is scheduled for Friday at Aylmer’s Ontario Police College. That clinic will be open from 10 am to 3 pm and is also accepting walk-ins due to low appointment numbers. The second clinic is slated for Jan. 25 at the Tillsonburg Community Centre.
These clinics are not only for educators, school support staff, students and their families, but also for workers in childcare, long-term care and retirement homes, as well as any adults aged 18 and older who have not yet had a first, second gold booster dose.
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With the recent return to in-school learning, Ontario’s Education Ministry is no longer compiling and reporting COVID-19 case numbers from the province’s schools. Now, schools are only reporting cases to public health once the number of absent students reaches 30 per cent above their baseline.
Lock noted, though, that children who contract COVID, particularly those older than the age of four, typical experience a mild illness that rarely becomes more serious.
“We do realize that a lot of children have already gotten sick and more will get sick over the coming weeks. Those need to stay out of school. But despite those people who are not in school, we want classrooms to continue. That’s our goal,” Lock said.
The ages of the current active cases listed in the region are not being provided at this time since only certain high-risk groups, including long-term residents care and First Nations members, are being tested for the virus.
For people not in those groups, including children, public health is asking they stay home from work or school when they feel unwell or show any mild symptoms.
“We will be keeping a very close eye on how having kids in school will overall impact the rates of COVID in the province and what that will do in our health-care system,” Lock said.
When additional public-health measures were put into place during the holidays, most people followed them and reduced their number of contacts, Lock said, but she does have some concerns now that kids are back in school.
“The question we are all waiting to see is what impact that will have on the pandemic curve. We’ll just have to wait and see how the next seven to 10 days go and then we’ll probably have a better line of sight,” she said.
To continue getting children vaccinated, the health unit is also offering families select evening and weekend appointments to complete a two-dose series of the vaccine for their child. Appointments are needed for these sessions.