Masks will not be required when Nova Scotia public school classes resume in September
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Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender said a lot of questions remain if people are to understand what Public Health feels is the best way to go into the new school year.
“We know that there are many families who are concerned about how the new school year will roll out,” Chender said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “We know that only 45 per cent of people aged five to 11 in this province have a full series of vaccines. We are not hearing plans for school-based vaccination clinics. We don't have paid sick leave in this province or a provision for parents to find the time to take their children for those boosters. And we don't see a lot of encouragement, either.”
All of that is compounded by aging school infrastructure, with many schools lacking extra ventilation systems, Chender said.
“It's not quite enough for the minister to say we're following the direction of Public Health. We know in the post-secondary context that there are COVID precautions in place and so we want to know what the view of Public Health is around how to keep Nova Scotians healthy with so many young people moving back into congregate settings in colder weather.”
Chender said she didn't know what Druhan meant when she said Nova Scotia schools “finished strong” last year.
“She's absolutely right that students are excited to return to a full range of activities. They're excited … for athletics and music and all of the other – both school-based and extracurricular – activities that they've been used to being able to enjoy. Or that some of them may not have been able to enjoy in their short educational careers.”
Chender said the NDP heard from many who were sick with COVID at the end of the school term and there is no apparent provision for isolating or staying home in that event.
“Certainly many families, particularly with immunocompromised folks, are getting very concerned that schools could be a major source of transmission and that that transmission could impact not only the students themselves, but, of course, family members.”
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