Navigating The New Normal: Rise In Covid-19 Cases In Canada Has Schools Concerned

A grassroots group of health experts is urging British Columbia to impose mask mandates in schools and hospitals to avoid a repeat "tripledemic" of COVID-19, RSV, and influenza infections that brought the province's hospitals to the brink of collapse last fall.

With growing COVID-19 infections in British Columbia and two additional viral subvariants on the horizon, Protect Our Province B.C. believes the province should act sooner rather than later.

More than a dozen doctors, nurses, researchers, teachers, and professionals have joined forces to campaign for evidence-based pandemic policies.

"We know from last year that kids and schools were hard hit, and if the goal is to keep kids learning in school, we need to do what we can to prevent virus spread this fall," said Dr Lyne Filiatrault, a former emergency room physician in Vancouver and a member of the committee.

Back-to-school Jitters: Increasing Covid-19 Cases In Canada Have Schools Concerned

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Masks should be required in schools and healthcare facilities, according to Protect Our Province B.C., and the province should prioritize air filters and ventilation in classrooms to limit the risk of transmission.

"If the goal is to keep kids learning in school, we need to do everything we can this fall to prevent the viral spread of COVID and other airborne viruses," Filiatrault said.

While COVID-19 sends fewer individuals to the ICU this year compared to 2022, hospitalizations increased nearly 20% between April 2022 and March 2023 compared to the previous year, according to new statistics from the Canadian Centre for Health Information.

And, according to data released by the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control on August 23, virus concentrations have levelled out across the province and appear to be climbing in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, as well as other parts of Canada.

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However, because the vast majority of the population is at least somewhat protected by vaccination or a previous COVID-19 infection, it's unclear if the new variations EG.5 and BA.2.86 will cause infections to rise in the same way that the original Omicron variant did.

Early research suggests that EG.5 does not cause more severe sickness, but it may be more transmissible than prior Omicron subvariants found in British Columbia.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, it accounted for around 28% of cases in Canada during the week of August 6, but the World Health Organisation says the worldwide risk level is "low."

Little is known about the severely altered BA.2.86 variety, which has recently been detected in several nations but not in Canada.

According to infectious disease experts, a high number of mutations may make BA.2.86 more severe, although this cannot be determined at this early stage and with so few instances diagnosed.

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There Are Things You Can Do To Protect Yourself: Experts

As instances increase and we learn more about the new varieties, Labos believes it is sensible to impose masks in schools and healthcare settings. "It's not just the properties of the virus or the variant; it's also the environmental situation in which we place the virus, how easily we allow it to spread, and whether or not we have any public health measures in place to prevent it from spreading," Labos explained.

Dr Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, emphasized that parents should keep themselves and their children home from school and work if they are sick, regardless of whether a test shows they have COVID-19.

"It doesn't matter what the virus is, just let's prevent illness in the community by doing that simple measure," Bogoch added.

Bogoch, Labos, and Filiatrault also urged parents to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 and influenza, noting that immunization rates for children under the age of 12 trail substantially below rates for teens and adults in British Columbia.

Adults should also get vaccinated, according to Filitrault, especially if the new vaccines targeting more current Omicron strains become available later this fall.

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