Don’t blame schools for high COVID rates among BC youth: provincial health officer
Bonnie Henry’s findings are similar to those in other jurisdictions
British Columbia’s provincial health officer says the findings of a study she authored showing that children and youth had the highest rates of COVID-19 in parts of the province should not be interpreted as indicating that these infections occurred primarily in schools. Dr. Bonnie Henry has been criticized by some parents, advocacy groups and health professionals who say a significant jump in infections occurred during the school year in children under 10. They say measures such as covering all students and upgrading air filtration in schools could have been taken earlier to protect children in classrooms from a virus known to spread through the air. But Henry says some young people were getting infected when they weren’t eligible for the vaccine, and illness among people under 19 was comparable to community transmission. He says the findings of the study, which has not been peer-reviewed and was published online last week, are similar to those in other jurisdictions where schools have been closed for much longer than in B.C. The study ranks Henry among 13 experts who say a series of surveillance reports on infections from the start of the pandemic to August of this year show that at least 70 to 80 percent of young people in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley are infected with COVID-19. . RELATED: Study authored by BC’s top doctor says 80% of children had COVID-19 CoronavirusEducation HealthSchools
