COVID-19 Cases in Hamilton Schools Rise as Ontario Reports Over 1,000 Provincewide – Hamilton | The Canadian News

As the two Hamilton public school systems head into the third week of a fall comeback amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the two boards reported that 65 students and staff contracted an infection during the first two weeks.

Since the September return, the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) has reported 38 cases in total among 23 schools, while the Catholic board (HWCDSB) says they have had 27 linked to 11 schools.

Along with the cases, five city schools have experienced outbreaks with four active as of Tuesday involving a total of 10 cases at Tapleytown Elementary in Stoney Creek, St. Thomas More Catholic, Huntington Park Elementary School and Shannen Koostachin Elementary School.

A school outbreak is defined by the province as two or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases with an epidemiological link within a 14-day period where at least one case could have reasonably acquired an infection at school.

Students account for 55 of all school infections with 33 in the HWDSB and 22 in Catholic schools.

As of Monday, Ontario schools reported 1,009 cases in the first two weeks of the return with another 293 reported over the weekend. More than 85 percent (874) are students. About 12 percent (593) of the province’s 4,844 schools now have at least one case of COVID.

Ontario had a smaller number of total school cases at this same time last year (91), however, not all schools had returned to their academic year.

Ryan Imgrund, a biostatistician who tracks COVID-19 case numbers every day, says the school year didn’t get off to a great start with numbers in the first week similar to those seen in the third and fourth weeks of his return. 2020.

He suggests that part of the problem is the absence of designated groups that had high school students last year avoiding groups by alternating morning sessions from day to day and avoiding shared lunches in cafeterias.

“If you think back to last year of our 70 weird school boards, 28 of them were appointed,” Imgrund said.

“So both the Hamilton public, and the Hamilton Catholic, it was the school boards that were appointed. What this means is that high school students only attended morning sessions every other day. “

HWDSB President Dawn Danko told Global during the first week that the board knew there would be cases and that the key would be to find ways to limit the spread, including implementing short regional closures in case the cases got out of business. control.

“That is what we have heard from the province. They are not planning a province-wide shutdown, ”Danko told Global News.

“We can see what is happening in Hamilton, how we manage at the HWDSB, and if we need to close a school, a classroom or a cohort temporarily, the goal is to keep it very temporary.”

On Monday, Hamilton’s physician, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, said she was also expecting cases in the schools and insists it is part of what is happening in the community.

“So as that number of cases decreases, we hope that the number of cases in schools will continue at this level and not increase further, ”Richardson said.

“As we have more contacts, that is a concern, there will be a greater number of cases and a greater number of outbreaks.”

Richardson said city health officials are “watching very closely” a push from Pfizer seeking authorization “as soon as possible” from Health Canada to allow its COVID vaccine to be administered to children ages 5 to 11 who up to the date have not been eligible for a Shot.

“So exciting news as initial results come in and then keep watching to see how that regulatory process plays out and when it might be that we can roll out vaccines at a lower age,” Richardson said.

On Monday, Pfizer said the tests showed promising results in children and is continuing to send Health Canada data on the findings, which has not yet been peer-reviewed or published.

The company went on to say that it expects to release clinical trial data in late October that will reveal how well the vaccine works in children ages 6 months to 5 years.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch told Global News that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada approvals for the use of vaccines in children “will take time” as the agencies will have a lot of data to read.

“I think it’s fair to say that we will probably see an approval of vaccines for children ages five to 12, maybe in the latter part of 2021 at the latest,” Bogoach said.

“Maybe it’s early 2022. But it’s definitely on the mid-term horizon.”

Second-dose vaccines among people ages 12 to 17 in Hamilton increased more than 10 percent month-over-month in September. However, the inoculation rate (68.78 percent) in that age group still lags behind the city’s overall two-dose average of 75.4 percent as of Monday.

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