Keeping sick people out of schools needs to be priority, Shahab says

As classes get set to resume, Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer says the big priority needs to be keeping sick people out of schools.

Speaking on Gormley on Tuesday morning, Dr. Saqib Shahab said the practice of allowing kids to go to school if they have mild symptoms can’t continue in the time of COVID-19.

Shahab noted that, based on observations in Europe and Asia, the coronavirus tends to spread into schools and not the other way around.

“Schools do not take COVID to the community, COVID comes to the schools from the community,” Shahab said.

Shahab said in a household with schoolchildren, it’s more likely that an adult will be infected with the virus than the child.

He also recommends teachers and staff should get tested even before classes start Sept. 8.

“It’s really important for staff to consider getting tested before school starts and throughout the school year, especially even the slightest of symptoms, maybe a headache. Seek testing because that will inform transmission risk in the school setting,” Shahab said.

Staff and teachers now have the same priority as health-care workers when it comes to testing, Shahab said.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority now has the capacity to do 3,000 tests per day, with the goal of reaching 4,000 per day by the time school starts.

As for the students, he said they should stick to the same spot in the classroom and on the school bus, facing forward and keeping as much distance as possible between themselves and their classmates.

He said the goal is to reduce the chance of coughing or sneezing while close by. Breaks like recess should also be staggered, he said.

“This concept of minimizing intermingling is a key concept designed not to end a case here and there — that will happen in schools — but to prevent larger outbreaks as much as we can,” Shahab said.

To mask or not to mask

While some municipalities have suggested people wear masks indoors in public places, no one in Saskatchewan has yet to mandate the use of masks.

Shahab continues to encourage people to cover their noses and mouths when indoors in public.

“That really is an additional layer of protection,” he said. “If most of us wore a mask in indoor places, we would reduce community transmission by 50 to 70 per cent. That’s a really important layer that can prevent lockdowns or business closures.”

Shahab noted public health officials could suggest to the government to order the use of masks if there is a spike in case numbers, but he said they would rather use voluntary strategies such as mask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing proactively to prevent the surge in the first place.

“There can be a case to mandate (mask use) provincially or at a municipal level,” he said, “but even beyond that, it’s just one of those learned behaviours that demonstrate that we are keeping ourselves safe and we’re keeping each other safe.”