‘Extreme measures’ like school closures not yet necessary: Strang

‘We’re watching for widespread infections and we have not seen that yet in a school, not even in a single classroom,’ said the province’s chief medical officer of health

HALIFAXtoday\ Meghan Groff

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The province’s chief medical officer of health is encouraging parents to continue sending their kids to school, even as COVID-19 cases connected to classrooms continue to be reported.

Yesterday, four schools were notified of exposures.

“I know parents are worried about their children getting COVID, especially if they’re too young to get vaccinated. I understand that,” said Strang at a Wednesday briefing.

“Fortunately for most children, COVID-19 is a mild illness, even with the Delta variant.”

He said the overall wellbeing of children is impacted by not being able to go to class, and younger students in particular struggle with online learning.

He believes, at this point, keeping kids home would put them at a greater risk than sending them to class.

“We’re watching for widespread infections and we have not seen that yet in a school, not even in a single classroom,” Strang explained.

“Right now we have 32 schools with COVID cases. Eight of them involve spread to another person within the school.”

He said that spread typically involved one or two students in a single classroom.

“There’s been no schools where there has been wide spread within a classroom or spread beyond a single classroom,” he stated. “In some schools there are multiple cases, but no spread within a classroom.”

“We are not at a point where we need to take extreme measures like closing schools,” Strang added.

He said the only reason for parents to keep their kids home is if they’ve told to by Public Health, or if their child has symptoms.

“I believe that schools remain safe, even though we have some virus activity,” said Strang.

“But please be reassured that if Public Health feels that closing a school is necessary, we will not hesitate in collaboration with our education partners.”