Vaccination bookings for children jumped after Ontario’s chief medical officer revealed mandatory masking in schools would be lifted next Monday as kids return to school from March break.
The Ministry of Health said there was a 23 per cent increase in appointments from the previous week for COVID-19 shots for kids aged five to 11 on the provincial booking system following the announcement from Dr. Kieran Moore.
“This sounds like parents might be compensating for a shift in risk levels,” said epidemiologist Todd Coleman of Wilfrid Laurier University. “No masks and a lack of vaccination is clearly not ideal for preventing spread.”
The bookings from last Wednesday, when Moore made the announcement, to Saturday totalled 3,874 — an increase from 3,156 for the same period the previous week.
“Vaccines continue to provide strong protection,” said Alexandra Hilkene, spokeswoman for Health Minister Christine Elliott, urging parents with concerns to contact their doctors. “There are plenty of appointments available.”
But overall vaccination levels have increased only slightly, with 30.8 per cent of children aged five to 11 now having two doses compared to 29.9 per cent at the end of last week, according to provincial statistics posted Tuesday.
In contrast, 91.5 per cent of children aged 12-17 are fully vaccinated with two shots.
The lifting of mandatory masking in schools prompted concern among some medical experts, school boards, and opposition parties at Queen’s Park.
The public board serving Hamilton-Wentworth passed a motion to extend mandatory masking to April 15 but all boards were told by Premier Doug Ford to “follow the direction of the chief medical officer, plain and simple” with kids and teachers welcome to wear masks if they wanted.
Officials also said mask extension orders by school boards are not enforceable unless they are backed by an order from the local public health unit.
Critical care specialist Dr. Michael Warner of Michael Garron Hospital advised people to “keep their masks on in schools,” saying masking is “a reasonable protective measure to help blunt transmission.”
Ford said Ontario is sticking with the plan to lift mandatory masking in most indoor public spaces despite rises in cases in China, Hong Kong and Europe. Scotland, for example, said Tuesday it will extend mandatory masking until April as infections and hospitalizations rise.
“We’ve built up our health-care system to be able to handle an increase,” the premier told reporters, adding “for the first few days I’ll be keeping my mask on” at the legislature.
Elliott acknowledged that the BA.2 variant of COVID-19 — which is 30 per cent more contagious than the Omicron strain that suddenly sparked a fifth wave of the pandemic before Christmas — is poised to become the dominant variant in Ontario soon.
But she said “it’s not causing many more hospitalizations or more intensive treatments,” she added. “We’re keeping a very close eye on it and are very cognizant of what’s going on in the rest of the world … Dr. Moore feels that we will be able to handle this variant without any further disruption to services in Ontario.”
Hospitalizations have been steadily falling in Ontario, although Moore has warned the end of mandatory masking could lead to a rise in infections.
Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1
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