Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table calls for a normal school year

Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table concluded in a new report that students should have a normal school year when they return to school in the fall.

The report says that as long as there is not a significant spike in COVID-19 cases causing hospitalizations, then there should be extracurricular activities, no daily health checks, and no mask mandate for students.

The report also says the government needs to do everything it can to avoid the long school closures it put students through during the last school year.

Ronald Cohn, the president and chief executive officer of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children says told The Globe and Mail that "Schools should not only open in September, but need to stay open." According to him, closing schools "should not be used as a lever for pandemic control unless we find ourselves in a catastrophic circumstance."

The report comes weeks after the end of a controversial school year which saw the Ford government ignore all scientific advice and keep schools closed.

Ari Bitnun, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at SickKids, said that keeping schools closed caused more harm to children than COVID, especially since most infections in children are mild or asymptomatic.

"Their general health, their mental health, their socialization skills, and their overall well-being is significantly worsened by not being in school. When you compare that to the adverse consequences of COVID in kids, the balance, in our view, is that they should be in school."

The report also notes that out of the 272,257 confirmed cases of COVID-19 for Canadians under the age of 19, only 0.06 percent needed to be admitted to intensive case, while 14, or 0.005 percent died. In the meantime, child and teen suicides are up, and children's mental health wards are at capacity due to the harms of lockdowns and school closures.

In an email, a spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce said "we are following the advice of Sick Kids and pediatric experts on our plan – with $550-million in continued air ventilation improvements underway – and all permanent recommendations made by Ontario's Science Table already implemented by our government."

The calls for a more normal school year will come as a relief to parents and students, and differ from Ontario's new Chief Medical Officer of Health who had previously said that kids may remain masked due to "other viruses".