B.C. mandates masks for all K-12 students

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Starting next week, all B.C. students in elementary and secondary schools will have to wear masks.

“This order will be in place for the remainder of this school term as one additional layer to help reduce risk of transmission in classrooms and schools,” said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

The extended mandate comes at the end of a week that saw three major school districts in Metro Vancouver introduce masking requirements for kids in Kindergarten to Grade 3, which went beyond the previous health order aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19. Previously, only kids in Grades 4 to 12 were required to wear masks.

On Thursday night, the Burnaby School District was the latest to bring in a school-wide mask mandate, after the Surrey School District and the Vancouver School Board made the move earlier this week.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says it's because there has been a rapid increase in school cases over the last two weeks. Says it is another layer of protection. This will go until the end of the term.

— Robyn Crawford (@robyncrawford_) October 1, 2021

“We have seen a steady rise in COVID-19 diagnoses in school-aged children, particularly those five to 11 years of age who are not yet eligible for vaccination, and particularly a rapid increase in the last two weeks,” Henry said.

“The majority of COVID transmission continues to occur in homes and through social networks and we’ve seen that throughout this pandemic, but we are also seeing a significant increase in testing in school-aged children,” she added. “Nevertheless, increased diagnosis has led to increasing numbers of potential exposure events, and several school outbreaks have also been detected and reported.”

Starting Monday, the mask mandate applies to all students in Kindergarten to Grade 12, staff, and visitors in indoor areas, including at desks and on school buses. The policy will be in place until at least the end of the first school term.

People who cannot tolerate wearing a mask for health or behavioural reasons are exempt from the policy, as are people who are not able to put on or remove a mask without help.

“There are some people who have challenges wearing masks,” Henry said. “We’ve put in place exemptions that allow [them to not] wear masks … that goes for schools too and we’ve been approaching it in schools in a very positive environment. Yes, there are some children that have difficulties with it and we know that.”

Masks are allowed to be temporarily removed to take part in high-intensity physical activity or play wind instruments, as well as to eat or drink. Staff who are helping someone with a disability or diverse ability where visual cues, facial expressions and/or lip reading is important, are not required to wear a mask.

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This move is something BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) President Teri Mooring has long been pushing for.

“We have more cases of COVID-19 in schools right now, and more children getting sick than we had last year, and yet we have fewer layers of protection in place,” Mooring said.

She would also like to see a more comprehensive testing strategy and the potential for vaccination clinics at schools.

“These are ways we could ensure schools are more safe than they are,” Mooring said.

Says it's great they will be getting more information from province on spread in schools. Says to this point, that has been lacking.

— Robyn Crawford (@robyncrawford_) October 1, 2021

B.C.’s top doctor says over the next few months, “we need to keep the priority on the school.”

“This might mean keeping other social activities outside of school, smaller or more limited,” Henry said, adding the BC Centre for Disease Control has been working to develop detailed “school-specific” reports.

“Our first report will be available in the middle of October and we will then provide data and a report monthly that we’ll be able to provide to parents, to school communities, and to the public,” Henry said.

Mooring is pleased to hear this from Henry, saying families and teachers have voiced concerns about a lack of transparency.

“They don’t have enough information about what’s happening at their child’s school in order to make an informed decisions and there’s lots of conversations about that,” she said.

“The health authorities state that whoever needs to know that there’s been an exposure event in school gets those letters and is told, and so everyone who needs to know does know. I would say that all along, we have shared our concerns about the contact tracing process not being as complete as so many teachers feel it should be … In order to say everyone that should be informed about an exposure is being informed means that that contact tracing process needs to be perfect. And we know nothing is perfect, and certainly not this, especially the fact that it excludes teachers from being a part of that process.”

Mooring: Three school boards stepped up to make the mask mandate and that's great. Says it's really disappointing school boards had to do that, and it wasn't implemented by province at the get go.

— Robyn Crawford (@robyncrawford_) October 1, 2021

Children 11 years and younger cannot be immunized at this time but older children can receive either Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines. Vaccines for kids aged five to 11 are currently under review for emergency use. Henry is hoping kids in that age group in B.C. can receive the vaccine in a matter a weeks.

“History has shown that it takes several weeks for them to review safety data, all the effectiveness data, and they have to review the manufacturing the safe manufacturing processes as well. So, it may be as early as the end of October is what we’re hearing, but it may take more time than that. But I am really hopeful that we will have vaccination for the five to 11 age group … before the end of this calendar year and hopefully at the end of October.”

Mooring believes the province would be able to achieve greater immunization rates if the shots were administered in schools. Currently, B.C. students receive meningococcal and tetanus vaccines in grade nine.

“We already give vaccinations in schools so it would be very easy to also vaccinate them at the same time for COVID-19.”

“School sites aren’t always the best sites, depending on the community. We understand that. Sometimes there’s other community sites that are better. But really, the emphasis we feel needs to be on those 12 to 17-year-old vaccination rates. There’s still a huge discrepancy across the province in terms of rates of vaccination,” she added after Henry’s Friday announcement.

When asked whether she is considering requiring school staff members be vaccinated against the coronavirus, B.C.’s top doctor said she hoped all teachers would have taken advantage of being prioritized for immunization when the program was being rolled out. But mandating vaccinations for teachers is not something Henry is looking at right now.

“My focus, in terms of provincial health officer orders around vaccination, is on those highest risk settings where the risk to those who are exposed from workers is the greatest. That includes long-term care and assisted living, which is incredibly important. We know more and more, even with vaccinated residents … people introducing the virus into those settings is extremely dangerous and leads to unnecessary deaths. So, that is our focus,” she said.

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Kathy Marliss runs the BC School COVID Tracker Facebook page, which reports dozens of COVID-19 exposures at schools every day. She says it’s been exhausting to keep up with all the updates in the first few weeks of this school year.

“I think the only way to minimize the work load and the sheer volume of what’s happening in schools is to put safety measures back in schools,” she said.

Marliss says many parents are also worried about poor ventilation in their schools, and are asking for cohorts, as well as physical distancing, to be reinstated this year, as well as physical distancing.

“Otherwise we are going to be doing this all year and it’s going to be crazy. And you know what? Eventually there’s not going to be that many kids to teach because they are going to be home sick, isolating or worse. So this is sort of the trajectory we feel we are at, and they need to take action,” she said.

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“A year and a half now into the pandemic, our experience tells us the COVID exposures in schools are indeed a reflection of what is happening in the surrounding community. That continues to be true,” said B.C. Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside.

“We know the best protection for kids in our schools, especially for those who are too young to receive a vaccine, is for everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated. And I am asking you now, if you have not yet had your shot, now is your time.”

On Friday, Henry acknowledged British Columbians’ anxiety with the pandemic, adding everyone has had to change and adapt with more transmissible variants.

“But I think I can say with confidence that we are in a better place in our schools. That’s because the adults in the school system have vaccination,” she said.

“The best thing that we can do that will keep our schools functioning is making sure that all of the adults and older siblings who are able to be vaccinated are. That protects the young kids, it protects the schools and keeps them open, but it also protects our family and our community.”

With files from Claire Fenton, Paul James, Monika Gul, and Dean Recksiedler