Schools will return full-time in September with another mask mandate, but there is no word on vaccines being required within the school setting – something the Richmond Board of Education has been hearing from parents about.
During a news briefing Tuesday morning, Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside said there will be a requirement for all staff and students in Grade 4 and up to wear masks, including in both classrooms and while taking school buses, to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Richmond school board chair Sandra Nixon said the mask mandate was something that was being pushed for by those in the education system.
“People need to feel confident they feel safe when they come back,” Nixon told the Richmond News.
But, while vaccines will be required at non-essential activities at post-secondary institutions, like sports events, no vaccine mandate was announced for the K-12 education system.
Nixon said she’s fielding a lot of questions from Richmond parents about requiring vaccines.
While those who are vaccinated usually don’t get very sick, it’s also possible for vaccinated people to carry and spread the Delta variant.
The health minister said Monday the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are currently people who aren’t vaccinated (this data is not being released by the government in real time).
Parents are worried when they see data about the Delta variant spreading even among the vaccinated, Nixon said.
“We’re getting those kinds of really good questions and I think we need to get more clarity and how that relates to the guidelines… and how it relates to what happens in our schools,” Nixon said. “I have the same question.”
At Tuesday’s press briefing, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said vaccine mandates are “proportional to the risk.”
She added schools are safe settings in terms of transmission of COVID-19 – even when vaccines weren’t implemented last year. (While there were exposures to COVID-19 in Richmond schools last year, district superintendent Scott Robinson reiterated throughout the year that there were no known transmissions of the virus.)
“I believe that we should be encouraging (vaccines), making sure it is available, and then looking at what are the things that need to be in place to make sure every adult who can be immunized in a school setting is immunized - or every eligible person - but particularly the adults in the school settings,” Henry said at the press briefing.
Children under the age of 12 currently can’t be vaccinated although trials are on-going to develop a safe vaccine for this age group.
Masks will be strongly recommended for B.C. students in Kindergarten to Grade 3.
During the news conference, Henry said, while many younger children under the age of 12 have become used to wearing masks, she indicated the best way to protect those who are not able to get immunized is for adults around those children to get vaccinated themselves.
- with files from Glacier Media
