I have only praised our leaders.....up until this point. But I don't agree now. I think this is me out on limb number 3

We are ready for a return to school for several epidemiological, economical and mental health related reasons. To the awesome people of Ontario, we had 70 new cases yesterday. It was our fifth day of cases staying under 100. That is so remarkable. You put on a mask in public and you kept your distance from folks not in your bubble. This was and is a remarkable public health collaboration that worked to control COVID 19 in the province. This low level of transmission is right where we need to be and to stay to allow for a safe return to school. Thank you to all of you who have continued to follow the guidelines even when the amount of COVID 19 in the community remains so low. This is how we outsmart the virus and move as closely back to normal as we possibly can while waiting for a vaccine.

I was at a BBQ last night with my husband's colleagues that I love dearly. It was so hard not to be close to them which I find surprising. It is not the same as when I could cosy up my adirondack chair beside a dear friend and listen closely to the details of their life and their take on the state of the world. But we all adhered to the physical distancing rules knowing that everyone must in order to move this virus out of our lives as quickly as possible. Stay focused on the guidelines. We have the resilience and strength to do this. Stay strong..... and well done......70 new cases in Ontario yesterday. So proud of my fellow citizens.

This document from Sick Kids Toronto is a great document to review: https://bit.ly/2XMdYKK

A key quote from that document: "It is anticipated that

there will likely be an increase in cases of COVID-19 upon

the resumption of school and as such, the appropriate

measures should be proactively put in place to mitigate the

effects of such an increase."

Medical experts, public health experts and epidemiologists now know what needs to be in place before a return to school can safely happen.

1/ The first thing we need, we already have which is low community transmission rates ( <100 new cases a day). The lower the number of infections in the general community, the less likely the virus gets into the schools.

2/ We need a hospital like model of multiple layers of infection prevention and control.

KEEP COVID 19 OUT OF THE SCHOOLS

The first layer is just keep it out of the school setting to the best of your ability which involves daily screening and making sure that kids do not come to school sick.

KEEP COVID 19 FROM SPREADING IN SCHOOLS

The next layer involves steps to lessen the chances of students and staff transmitting infections, which means PHYSICAL DISTANCING, hand washing and masks and reducing the amount of interaction among the school population. Use the concept of COHORTING. separating students into small groups, perhaps 15 at the most, who spend their whole day in the same classroom with one teacher, take their lunch and breaks together, and do not mingle with anyone else in the school.

3/ If there are new cases in the classroom, health officials should be able to identify where new cases are coming from with a strong system of screening , rapid testing and contact tracing. Contact tracing is much easier if kids are bubbled into COHORTS. You quarantine the cohort group of kids and test their out of school contacts instead of shutting down an entire school and forcing every person's contacts into lock down. That could be thousands of people connected to larger schools.

Here's what I think. We have done the work of driving new cases of COViD 19 down to <100 cases/day.

Check.

Parents and teachers are being trained to carefully assess their kids for symptoms, keeping symptomatic kids home.

Check.

We can wear masks and wash hands.

Check.

Public health is ready to quarantine and contact trace. Public Health officials are working closely with the Ministry of Education to put this strategy in place.

Check.

Physical distancing, cohorts of 15 or less.....not even close.

I don't think we should send kids back to school unless physical distancing and cohorting is possible. The risk is too high. The risk to our kids is low but the risk of transmitting to teachers and family members is way too high and the risk of a surge that puts us back into lockdown and towards an economic mess is unacceptable.

There is still time. I fully support any effort that gives the government the opportunity to put these vital pieces in place before a return happens, even if it means we delay a return by a few weeks.

COVID 19 is too big of a threat to send kids back to classrooms of 29 kids where physical distancing is not possible.

Anne-Marie

Please share.

Just keeping a tiny part of this light. Thank you to the person who made me surgical caps and cloth masks with CARROT material. I love it. My carrots are thriving and I have found a way to can them!

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