COVID cases in children trend higher as the new school year looms

There’s less than a month before schools starts in Saskatchewan, and what the classrooms – and COVID-19 – will look like by then is a question on many minds.

Active COVID cases have been on the rise over the past weeks, including in youth.

According to numbers released Monday, about a third of reported COVID-19 cases in July in Saskatchewan were in people 19 years and younger. About 20 per cent of cases in the province in the month were in kids under 12 who are currently too young to be vaccinated.

Health Minister Paul Merriman said those numbers don’t create any concerns for back to school.

“There’s a higher number of people under the age of 12 and 19 that are getting COVID, but they’re certainly not getting into our hospitals, and they’re certainly not having any extreme outcomes,” Merriman said.

In July, no one under 19 with COVID-19 was admitted to an ICU or died in Saskatchewan, though there have been at least three deaths related to COVID in someone under 19 in the province during the pandemic.

The minister said he has been talking with Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, who in turn has been working with public health officers, school boards, and the Minister of Education to see what the year will look like.

The Safe Schools Plan, released in mid-July, showed no provincially imposed restrictions in schools, though individual divisions are crafting their own plans as well.

Merriman said he’s still waiting for direction on when kids will be able to get a vaccine.

“I know Pfizer and Moderna have both been looking at that five-to-11 range and getting in that vaccination,” said Merriman.