Get COVID-19 Booster Shots, Doug Ford Urges Ontario Teachers

Prime Minister Doug Ford hopes that Ontario’s two million schoolchildren will be able to return to face-to-face learning as soon as possible, but wants to make sure that “the teachers are in the classroom alongside the students.”

That’s why Ford is pleading with educators to get their COVID-19 booster shots and for parents to vaccinate their children.

“We have to make sure that when the kids go back to school, they can function,” he said Friday after touring a workplace booster clinic at Purolator in Etobicoke, which administers 500 injections a day.

“We don’t want to see a New York City, (where) a bunch of kids are sitting in the gym doing absolutely nothing while we see absenteeism across the board, not just in the private sector,” the prime minister said.

However, that is a reference to a large number of students, teachers and staff in New York who reported ill due to Omicron. snowy weather it could also be a factor.

“Schools are not exempt from this,” Ford said. “Hospitals are not exempt. We are doing everything we can to make sure we get through this. We want to make sure they can function and make sure the teachers are in the classroom with the students. ”

His comments came as an open letter from 136 community, business and medical leaders, published in Star and other Torstar publications, urging him to reopen the schools.

“The changes to online education have caused our children to fall behind in several important ways. For children from low-income families, the mental and physical health effects of online education are even greater, ”warned Friday’s letter.

“We are deeply concerned about the continued lack of advance planning your government has undertaken to ensure safe schools. 2022 requires more than a 2020 response. The closure of schoolchildren cannot continue to be the alternative response two years after this pandemic ”.

In a U-turn Monday, four days after Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer for health, assured parents, students and teachers that schools would reopen this week, Ford said the highly communicable Omicron variant meant that students would not return to classrooms. until January 17 at the earliest.

But, as Star first reported, high school students could return earlier than elementary school children due to their higher vaccination levels.

Ford noted that it is “great” that so many high school students have had their shots.

“There are more than 82 percent of children who receive the double vaccine in secondary schools. We want to make sure that teachers have the opportunity to get their booster shots alongside child care workers and make sure it’s an area where schools can function, ”he said.

Among children ages 12 to 17, 82.4 percent have received both vaccines and 86.1 percent have received at least one.

But among children ages 5 to 11, who only became eligible for vaccination on Nov. 23, 45.2 percent have a vaccine and only 2.6 percent are fully vaccinated, although those numbers are starting to rise. increase rapidly.

Of all Ontario residents between the ages of five and 17, only 40.2 percent are fully vaccinated and 64.5 percent received their first vaccination.

That compares with 77.7 percent of the total population, including those under the age of five who are not eligible for vaccination, with both injections and 83.2 percent with one.

“I’m here constantly saying, ‘Get vaccinated.’ That is absolutely critical. When you get vaccinated, you are protecting yourself … from going to hospitals and putting a burden on the healthcare system, ”Ford said.

“Please come out, get vaccinated. But make no mistake about it, we are in a dire situation and we will overcome it because we have a solid plan, strong protocols in place and we will make sure they are implemented. “

That plan includes the distribution of faster antigen tests to schools once they arrive from the federal government, the installation of 3,000 more HEPA filters in classrooms in addition to the 70,000 already installed, accelerated booster shots for educators and delivery of N95 masks to education workers.

But the Ontario Federation of Elementary Teachers reiterated Friday that the government should expand vaccines and COVID-19 testing in schools, as well as better monitor outbreaks.

Those steps, among others, are essential “to safely and sustainably return to in-person learning,” the union said.

Robert Benzie is the bureau chief for Star’s Queen’s Park and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie