Kids back to school Monday
Students are ordered back to school Monday and it’s also predicted that the curfew will be lifted as well, although that’s not yet official.
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walkerp 09:24 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
Seems a bit hasty to do both, though I guess restaurants and gyms, etc. are all still closed and the holiday season is over.
Lot of amateur epidemiologists on twitter freaking out about schools opening.
Tim S. 09:30 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
Aren’t we all amateur epidemiologists by now?
My own impression is that what kept kids reasonably safe up until now was contact tracing – the fact that public health was able to quarantine infected classes quickly. I don’t think the ability to do that has been there since mid-December. We’ll see, I guess.
walkerp 09:38 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
Also, there has been a big push for vaccination for kids, though it is sadly much higher in higher-income neighbourhoods.
Why do you think the contact tracing is no longer there? Did they stop doing it? My understanding was that it was quite good in Montreal, at least.
Kevin 10:23 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
Contact tracing stopped because there are no longer enough people to do it. Everyone’s been diverted to vaccination, or to working in hospitals.
Tim S. 10:24 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
Well, it’s hard to contact trace if you can’t get a test. Is there a way to self-report rapid tests yet? If a family calls in a positive rapid test to the school, who has authority to send the class home?
I’m not dead-set against going back to in-person school, but my stress level has definitely gone up this morning and I found Legault’s announcement really tone-deaf. We’re sending our kids back to get sick, and maybe on some level the cost-benefit works out but it’s hardly a « bonne nouvelle ».
walkerp 11:06 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
Got it.
They do have rapid tests at the schools, so we shall see if they get reported starting next week. Good times!
Joey 11:34 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
@Tim S. something definitely changed in December – the DSP was offering inconsistent guidelines. For example – a friend’s child is in kindergarten; there was a positive case and the class was shuttered for two weeks, and then that was shortened after all the other kids tested negative (PCR – early December before Omicron really showed up). Our kid had a case in his class (and a couple of others in older classes). The kids were told to come to school and to stay if they tested negative on a rapid test. The next day (last Friday of the calendar year) two more kids called in positive and they sent everyone home at 9:45. Note that this isn’t a question of inadequate contact tracing – it’s not having clear guidelines/rules for what to do to prevent an outbreak.
Given the presence of rapid tests and the fact that many kids are (even double) vaccinated, I think the return to school can work. That said, the main challenge will likely be teacher shortages. At a certain point, the school system just becomes a babysitter.
Meezly 12:01 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
Has anyone seen the interactive map of the school vaccination ratios? The majority of schools are not ready.
Kevin 12:16 on 2022-01-13 Permalink
@Joey
In mid-December, the week before schools closed, public health sent out notes saying that they were overwhelmed and had sent out incorrect information regarding isolation/quarantine orders to many schools.