High school students at Marymount Academy International wear masks as they attend class on Nov. 17, 2020, in Montreal.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Quebec teachers unions said Wednesday their members should be vaccinated against COVID-19 as high school students in red zones prepare to return to class full time next week.
The Federation autonome de l’enseignement, the Centrale des syndicats du Quebec and the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers have asked the provincial government to prioritize vaccination for their members as more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus spread through schools.
Heidi Yetman, president of Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers, said Legault’s announcement on Tuesday about the return to class for high school students was a “bombshell” for her members, who were not consulted.
She said the decision to increase the number of students in classes is risky, noting that Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, has warned contagious variants are spreading among younger people.
“It’s very concerning that the very same day Dr. Tam says younger people are getting the variant, the Legault government opens up classes to more students,” she said.
Canada pre-purchased millions of doses of seven different vaccine types, and Health Canada has approved four so far for the various provincial and territorial rollouts. All the drugs are fully effective in preventing serious illness and death, though some may do more than others to stop any symptomatic illness at all (which is where the efficacy rates cited below come in).
- Also known as: Comirnaty
- Approved on: Dec. 9, 2020
- Efficacy rate: 95 per cent with both doses in patients 16 and older, and 100 per cent in 12- to 15-year-olds
- Traits: Must be stored at -70 C, requiring specialized ultracold freezers. It is a new type of mRNA-based vaccine that gives the body a sample of the virus’s DNA to teach immune systems how to fight it. Health Canada has authorized it for use in people as young as 12.
- Also known as: SpikeVax
- Approved on: Dec. 23, 2020
- Efficacy rate: 94 per cent with both doses in patients 18 and older, and 100 per cent in 12- to 17-year-olds
- Traits: Like Pfizer’s vaccine, this one is mRNA-based, but it can be stored at -20 C. It’s approved for use in Canada for ages 12 and up.
- Also known as: Vaxzevria
- Approved on: Feb. 26, 2021
- Efficacy rate: 62 per cent two weeks after the second dose
- Traits: This comes in two versions approved for Canadian use, the kind made in Europe and the same drug made by a different process in India (where it is called Covishield). The National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s latest guidance is that its okay for people 30 and older to get it if they can’t or don’t want to wait for an mRNA vaccine, but to guard against the risk of a rare blood-clotting disorder, all provinces have stopped giving first doses of AstraZeneca.
- Also known as: Janssen
- Approved on: March 5, 2021
- Efficacy rate: 66 per cent two weeks after the single dose
- Traits: Unlike the other vaccines, this one comes in a single injection. NACI says it should be offered to Canadians 30 and older, but Health Canada paused distribution of the drug for now as it investigates inspection concerns at a Maryland facility where the active ingredient was made.
How many vaccine doses do I get?
All vaccines except Johnson & Johnson’s require two doses, though even for double-dose drugs, research suggests the first shots may give fairly strong protection. This has led health agencies to focus on getting first shots to as many people as possible, then delaying boosters by up to four months. To see how many doses your province or territory has administered so far, check our vaccine tracker for the latest numbers.
In a statement, the Federation autonome de l’enseignement asked the government to vaccinate all teachers working in schools with presumed or confirmed variant cases.
It asked the government to expand a pilot project that began Monday, under which vaccinations are being administered to teachers and parents in two Montreal neighbourhoods where a variant is spreading widely.
“Variants do not respond to postal codes,” president Sylvain Mallette said in the statement.
Premier Francois Legault announced on Tuesday that high school students in red zones, such as Montreal, would return to class full time next week. Students in Grades 9 and up had been attending class one day out of every two.
Legault and the province’s public health director acknowledged on Tuesday there are risks to the plan but said the return to class is best for teens’ mental health.
Yetman agrees it’s important for students to be in class but says the province’s plan will have the opposite effect by forcing more classrooms to close because of COVID-19 cases.
Before sending more students into crowded classrooms, the government should address other issues, such as improving ventilation, increasing rapid testing and vaccinating teachers, she said. “To reopen the Grade 10 and 11 classes fully, to me is a risk,” she said.
“The other thing we have to consider is, it’s not just a risk to the teachers and working staff but also to the students and the wider community.”
The province reported 783 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and eight more deaths attributed to the virus, none of which occurred in the last 24 hours. Hospitalizations dropped by 11, to 508, and 118 people were in intensive care, an increase of five.
Quebec also surpassed the mark of one million vaccine doses administered after giving 31,025 shots Tuesday.
Health Minister Christian Dube and the province’s workplace health and safety board said Wednesday they would require workers in health-care settings to wear N95 masks when working with infected or potentially infected patients after a ruling by Quebec’s workplace tribunal.
In a decision published Tuesday, Judge Philippe Bouvier wrote that procedural masks were not sufficient to protect workers exposed to COVID-19, including those working in so-called “warm” zones housing suspected cases.
The government updated its position earlier this year to recommend N95 masks for workers in “hot” zones with more than one confirmed case. Before that, the province’s public health director limited use of the masks to health-care staff performing procedures that generate airborne particles or respiratory droplets – a position that was challenged by the province’s largest nurses’ union.
Dube wrote on Twitter that the government would respect the decision, adding that it had always followed the advice of experts and that protecting health personnel was its priority.
While children are far less likely to suffer serious complications from COVID-19, rare events do occur.
The Bas-St-Laurent region, which is struggling with dozens of cases linked to a suspected variant, reported Tuesday that a two-year-old child is among those in hospital with the disease. Public health authorities did not specify why the young child was hospitalized or whether it was as a precaution.
Health authorities in the region northeast of Quebec City have expressed concern in recent days about a rise in cases that has required almost 800 schoolchildren and staff to go into isolation. The regional health authority wrote on Wednesday it was contending with 11 outbreaks, including one in the pediatric unit of a hospital and six in schools.
Legault has also asked residents in two other regions – the Outaouais and the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean – to reduce their contacts in response to a rise in cases.
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