COVID-19: Despite Cases at Hamilton Schools, Experts Say “Too Soon” to Judge Reopening – Hamilton | The Canadian News

A pair of Ontario health policy experts suggest that it is too early to judge the impact of the increase in COVID-19 cases among children in the province, particularly those related to those who went back to school.

With the province reporting nearly 1,600 COVID cases in schools over the past 14 days and more than 2,000 since returning in September, Laurier University adviser Dr. Ahmad Firas Khalid told Global News that it is “a bit too much. soon “to say if the reopening will cause” massive cases “in the community.

“I think that kind of data will come in in the next few weeks, probably around the Thanksgiving holiday,” Firas Khalid said.

“We’ll see that data comes in and then scientists will have a much better-informed response on reopening schools and whether schools continue to be a big concern.”

As of Wednesday, Hamilton Public Schools reported a combined 119 new cases in the past 14 days with 168 total since the return fall of 2021. Cases among students since the return account for 154 of that total.

There have been five more outbreaks among city educational facilities since Friday in Hamilton linked to 23 cases, bringing the total number of active surges to Sept. 13-28, according to public health.

Despite cases in Ontario schools increasing day by day, Dr. Prabhat Jha, epidemiologist and professor of Global Health at the University of Toronto, does not expect a large number of outbreaks beyond the classroom, as the vaccinations are more frequent in the municipalities compared to the return of autumn 2020..

“So its contribution to new infections should have already appeared in the (general) data,” Jha said.

“So if you put all of that together, I am reasonably hopeful that we will not get another big increase in addition to the current infection levels that we have, which is not great, but not bad either.”

Jha suggests that the real problem in communities across the province right now is with the large number of unvaccinated or “under-vaccinated” people over 50 who have not received two injections.

“There are about 700,000 people over the age of 50 who still don’t have their shots. Almost all of the hospitalizations and many of the new cases come from that group, ”Jha said.

“That should be our only goal to make sure, those 700,000 over 50. They are the ones who run the risk of dying or going to the hospital.”

More than 10.5 million Ontarians have been fully immunized with two doses representing 80.7% of the eligible population (12 years and older). The coverage of the first dose is 86.1%.

In Hamilton, there were another 1,285 gun injections on Tuesday, representing a slight decline week-over-week, when just under 1,400 doses were administered on Sept. 21.

About 77 percent of Hamiltonians have been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday. Just over 83 percent of residents have received at least one dose.

Hamilton reported another 39 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, keeping the city’s seven-day average of new cases at 45.

Active cases saw another slight day-over-day drop to 325 cases as of September 29.

Most of the active cases in the city correspond to minors between 50 and 231 cases. Young people under the age of 19 account for just over 37 percent of new cases as of Wednesday.

Both hospital systems have a total of 34 patients requiring care, also decreasing slightly from day to day. There are 11 patients in intensive care (ICU).

The weekly positivity rate, which represents the number of COVID tests that returned from positive labs, fell slightly on Wednesday from 3.2 percent to 3.1 percent last week.

The provincial average is 1.7 percent.

Public health reported one more pandemic death day after day related to a 60-year-old who died with the affliction. The city has had 413 deaths since March 2020.

See link »