Estimating for vaccination rates in different Toronto schools
With the Ontario government prioritizing the choices of parents on whether to get their children vaccinated, there’s very little information out there about the vaccination rates in schools to help them understand the risks.
Only one health unit in Ontario publicly posts a breakdown of vaccination rates by schools — Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph, with figures that range from as high as 82.4 per cent with at least one dose in a public school to as low as 28.4 per cent in a private Christian school.
“Safety has to be number one, and knowing that percentage means they might choose the school or choose online if there’s a lower percentage,” said Linda Rice, outside Kimberley Junior Public School off Main Street in Toronto. “They should be able to do that without violating privacy — it’s just numbers, a percentage of children.”
Toronto is among the majority of health units that don’t publish that data — so CTV News Toronto took a shot at making estimates from neighbourhood-level COVID-19 vaccination rates, and last year’s TDSB enrolment figures, to estimate what the vaccination rates would be for City of Toronto public schools.
Our estimates at secondary schools ranged from about 87 per cent vaccinated with at least one dose in Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute to just 51 per cent at Yorkdale Secondary School.
Among the lower grades, the proportion of children under 12, who are not eligible to be vaccinated, turned out to be the largest predictor of our estimate of a school’s vaccination rates.
That was as high as 48 per cent at King Edward Junior and Senior School to zero for schools with no one eligible.
At a press conference Wednesday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said that students will be required to wear masks from grades 1 to 12, but that life would largely return to normal, allowing clubs and even indoor contact sports.
“I do not anticipate any different approach whether a child is vaccinated or unvaccinated. We would not be knowledgeable of their vaccine status,” Moore said.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said vaccines will not be mandatory for students and school staff who are eligible, despite saying they are the province’s best chance at avoiding a fourth wave.
“The government has made a decision in the context of mandating vaccines, and we’re not doing to do that. We’re going to respect the choices that parents make,” he said.
The government of Ontario’s website describes the law as, “Unless they have a valid exemption, children who attend primary and secondary school must be immunized” against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningitis, whooping cough, and chicken pox.
Parents have to provide proof of their child’s immunization status to your local public health unit and keep immunization up to date.
“Children who do not get immunized are at increased risk of disease,” the website says.
But public health officials said that children can be partially protected if their family members and teachers are vaccinated, and that more widespread vaccination rates are a “cornerstone” of a strategy that also includes common-sense health measures.
“As we head into colder weather, we really need to stick to common sense measures like masking while indoors, and staying home when we’re sick” said Peel Region’s medical officer of health, Dr. Lawrence Loh.
The Ontario Education Ministry told CTV News Toronto in a statement that it plans to release more information about what to do in the case of a COVID-19 outbreak at a school.
“In addition to the 2021-22 school year health and safety guidance, the Chief Medical Officer of Health will provide updated guidance for COVID-19 outbreak management in schools. The details are being finalized in consultation with the local public health units and will be released shortly,” the statement said.
Near Kimberley Junior Public School, Janice Fong’s son Aiden said he was excited to return to school in the fall, “because I want to see my friends.”
Fong herself was a bit more cautious, saying, “I hope they have proper protocols to prevent the virus spreading across the schools.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet
NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense. The most distant spacecraft from Earth hadn't sent home any understandable data since last November.