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Which students qualify for at-home learning? Your questions answered – CBC.ca

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Parents in Manitoba preparing to send their kids back to school this year have even more questions on their minds than usual, as the province struggles to once again flatten the curve on rising COVID-19 cases. 

A CBC survey asking parents for their top back-to-school questions received hundreds of responses. One of the major areas of concern had to do with at-home learning for children whose health conditions put them at risk of severe consequences from COVID-19.

School divisions will provide remote learning for “for students who are medically advised not to return to in-class learning due to COVID-19 related risk factors,” according to the province’s back-to-school planning document

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Doctors across the province are preparing for a flood of sick note requests from parents worried about sending their kids back to school.

Many questions remain, however, regarding what risk factors qualify and how that should be determined.

CBC News reached out to the province, as well as medical organizations and school divisions, to get the most up-to-date information about some of those questions. 

Take our survey if you have any other questions you want answered.

What qualifies a child for remote learning?

Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin has said it would be difficult to provide a list of health problems that could warrant an exemption to in-class learning. 

A spokesperson for the provincial government told CBC News in a statement that situations where students are granted an exemption “should be rare and limited to children with compromised immune systems or other medical conditions that increase their risk.” Parents must consult with a health care provider.

Once an exemption is granted, it would last for the rest of the year or until the spread of the virus is broadly contained and a vaccine or viable treatment is available, the spokesperson said.

In a note on its website advising on requests for workplace or school accommodations, Doctors Manitoba has directed physicians to guidelines published by Shared Health in July, detailing what COVID-19 risk factors could be considered for health care workers.

These risk factors included chronic conditions like lung and heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, cerebral vascular disease (stroke) and severe obesity. It also included people who are immunocompromised, including cancer patients, people who have received organ transplants or people who are taking immune-weakening medications like chemotherapy.

Concerns about mental health conditions like anxiety should be assessed in an in-person or virtual visit, Doctors Manitoba said.

“Doctors will discuss the situation with parents, understand their concerns and the plan for their specific school, but ultimately can only provide a note if there is medical basis for this,” said Kier Johnson, a spokesperson for Doctors Manitoba.

The College of Surgeons and Physicians of Manitoba has published guidance for handling requests for school accommodations from parents. They advise doctors that they “are not obliged to provide a medical note of exemption if they deem it is not medically indicated or appropriate for the individual circumstances.”

What about asthma or autism?

Many common chronic illnesses, like asthma, or cognitive and behavioural conditions such as autism, would “not necessarily” qualify someone for an exemption, Roussin said at a news conference on Aug. 27. 

He said there are a range of symptoms for those conditions and a medical professional would need to determine the severity of each individual case, and if it warranted an exemption. 

What if a family member is at risk?

The province’s back-to-school planning document states that students who can’t return to school because of “personal or family health risks factors related to COVID-19 will be supported in remote learning.”

As for who would qualify, the province has not said.

Doctors Manitoba says concerns about family members’ health conditions are “valid” but “problematic as a rationale” for accommodations. 

“When it comes to a family member’s health condition, that would really be a case-by-case issue. It would depend on the health concern or risk of the family member and the risk of the individual to being exposed to COVID,” said Johnson.

In addition to the risk factors listed above, other people who would be considered at risk would include people over the age of 60 and pregnant women. 

Do I need a doctor’s note to keep my child at home?

Not necessarily. A spokesperson for the province said the small number of children who are immunocompromised are likely already known to schools, but school divisions and independent schools can request a note if needed.

As Roussin said on Aug. 27: “For a decision that would [mean] you can’t go to school for an entire year because of a medical problem, I think that should be reviewed by a medical practitioner.”

Doctors will be expected to “follow and stay current with what is published by Shared Health and Manitoba Public Health and carefully consider the risks for children and members of their family. Doctors must only provide a note if it is medically indicated,” said Dr. Anna M. Ziomek, registrar and CEO of the College of Surgeons and Physicians of Manitoba.

Ultimately, these decisions will be made by Manitoba Education policies, with input from public health officials, Roussin said.

CBC News has requested comment from Manitoba Education but did not receive a response before deadline.

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York Region urges you to get up to date on vaccinations – NewmarketToday.ca

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York Region Public Health is reminding residents to keep up to date on their vaccinations as National Immunization Awareness Week begins.

The regional municipality said it is important to stay up to date on recommended vaccinations to ensure protection from contagious diseases. That includes updated COVID-19 vaccinations for vulnerable populations, recommended as part of a spring vaccination campaign.

“We know vaccines are safe and the best way to stay protected against vaccine-preventable disease,” the region said in a news release. 

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National Immunization Awareness Week runs from April 22 to 30, with this year’s theme being “Protect your future, get immunized.” 

This spring, the region is still doing COVID-19 vaccinations. While walk-ins are no longer available as of April 2, you can book an appointment to visit a York Region clinic.

The spring COVID-19 vaccination campaign is aimed at more vulnerable groups who have received a COVID-19 vaccine before. Those include seniors, those living in seniors living facilities like long-term care homes, immunocompromised individuals and those in Indigenous households who are 55 or older. Public health also recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for those who have not yet received one.

York Region Public Health is also reminding residents of the need for other vaccines. 

Measles cases have sprung up in Ontario and York Region recently. The region is recommending that people ensure they previously raised two valid doses of the measles vaccine. The region will also start providing measles vaccines April 29 for those overdue and for who do not have access to the vaccine through a health-care provider.

School-aged vaccinations are also available for free for children in junior kindergarten to Grade 12.

You can access immunization information at york.ca/immunziations or by contacting Access York at 1-877-464-9675.

“Vaccination helps protect everyone in our families, communities and schools,” the region said. “ By continuing to stay up to date on your immunizations, you help protect infants who are too young to be vaccinated and those not able to get vaccinated due to medical conditions.”

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Bird flu raises concern of WHO – ecns

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The World Health Organization (WHO) said the rising number of bird flu cases has raised “great concern” because it had an “extremely high” mortality rate among those who had been infected around the world.

The WHO’s data show that from 2003 through March 2024, a total of 889 worldwide human cases of H5N1 infection had been recorded in 23 countries, resulting in 463 deaths and a 52 percent mortality rate. The majority of deaths occurred in Southeast Asian countries and Egypt.

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The most recent death was in Vietnam in late March, when a 21-year-old male without underlying conditions died of the infection after bird hunting. So far, cases in Europe and the United States have been mild.

Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist at the WHO, said recently that H5N1, predominantly started in poultry and ducks, “has spread effectively over the course of the last one or two years to become a global zoonotic — animal — pandemic”.

He said that the great concern is that the virus is increasingly infecting mammals and then develops the ability to infect humans. It would become critical if the virus develops the ability to “go from human-to-human transmission”, Farrar said.

In the past month, health officials have detected H5N1 in cows and goats from 29 dairy herds across eight states in the US, saying it is an alarming development because those livestock weren’t considered susceptible to H5N1.

The development worries health experts and officials because humans regularly come into contact with livestock on farms. In the US, there are only two recorded cases of human infection — one in 2022 and one in April this year in Texas. Both infected individuals worked in close proximity to livestock, but their symptoms were mild.

Wenqing Zhang, head of the WHO’s global influenza program, told the Daily Mail that “bird-to-cow, cow-to-cow and cow-to-bird transmission have also been registered during these current outbreaks, which suggest that the virus may have found other routes of transition than we previously understood”.

Zhang said that multiple herds of cow infections in the US states meant “a further step of the virus spillover to mammals”.

The virus has been found in raw milk, but the Texas Health Services department has said the cattle infections don’t present a concern for the commercial milk supply, as dairies are required to destroy milk from sick cows. In addition, pasteurization also kills the virus.

Darin Detwiler, a former food safety adviser to the Food and Drug Administration and the US Agriculture Department, said that Americans should avoid rare meat and runny eggs while the outbreak in cattle is going on to avoid the possibility of infection from those foods.

Nevertheless, both the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the risk the virus poses to the public is still low. Currently no human-to-human infection has been detected.

On the potential HN51 public health risk, Farrar cautioned that vaccine development was not “where we need to be”.

According to a report by Barron’s, under the current plan by the US Health and Human Services Department, if there is an H5N1 pandemic, the government would be able to supply a few hundred thousand doses within weeks, then 135 million within about four months.

People would need two doses of the shot to be fully protected. That means the US government would be able to inoculate about 68 million people — 20 percent — of 330 million in case of an outbreak.

The situation is being closely watched by scientists and health officials. Some experts said that a high mortality rate might not necessarily hold true in the event the virus became contagious among people.

“We may not see the level of mortality that we’re really concerned about,” Seema Lakdawala, a virologist at Emory University, told The New York Times. “Preexisting immunity to seasonal flu strains will provide some protection from severe disease.”

Agencies contributed to this story.


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Peel Region has major childhood vaccination backlog – CBC.ca

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Peel Region has a massive childhood vaccination backlog, with more than half of children missing at least one mandated vaccine dose.

That’s the warning from Peel’s acting medical officer of health, who says the lack of school immunizations is spelling trouble for communicable diseases.

“Without significant dedicated resources, we estimate it will take seven years to complete screening catch up and achieve pre-pandemic coverage rates,” said Dr. Katherine Bingham in a presentation to Peel council on April 11.

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She says low immunization coverage among students significantly increases the risk for the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles.

Unless children have a valid exception, the following vaccines are mandatory for Ontario school children: diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningitis, whooping cough and chicken pox. Several other vaccines are strongly recommended by public health units and doctors. 

Advocates, doctors and Peel public health are advocating for more attention to the issue, more money from the province for public health and the formation of an action plan to quickly address the currently low vaccination rates.

Peel stacks lower than the provincial average on a number of vaccinations. For example, just over 37 per cent of seven-year-olds had been vaccinated against measles compared to more than 52 per cent province-wide as of August 31, 2022.

Peel Public Health says many children missed vaccinations they would have received at school or a doctor’s offices. Reporting of vaccines and enforcement also fell behind in the pandemic. To tackle the backlog more quickly, Peel Public Health opened public clinics for mandatory vaccines as of April 1 of this year.

‘We never thought it would be us’: mother

Jill Promoli, a Mississauga mother, lost her son, Jude, to a school flu outbreak eight years ago even though he was vaccinated. She’s now an illness prevention advocate championing immunizations and said the low vaccination rates in Peel children are “very concerning.”

“We never thought it would be us, but it is going to be someone,” said Promoli, who’s also a Peel District School Board Trustee, but did not speak to CBC Toronto in that capacity.

“The reason that we do vaccinate against these diseases is not because they’re inconvenient or uncomfortable, but it’s because people do die from them,” she said.

Jill Promoli, second from right, a Mississauga mother, says 50 per cent of Peel children missing a mandatory vaccine dose right now is “very concerning”. The Promoli family had this portrait taken before Jude, right, passed away eight years ago due to a school flu outbreak. (Submitted by Jill Promoli)

Promoli says she’s also concerned about children who are vaccinated being exposed, given vaccines do not provide complete immunity.

Pediatric and infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anna Banerji, called the proportion of Peel students missing a mandated dose “very high.”

“It needs to be addressed,” she said.

She says part of the problem in the region is access, including to family doctors, but the region also has a diverse population, which can mean additional challenges.

“I think that language and cultural support and trying to get these kids vaccinated will be very important,” she said.

Banerji also pointed to vaccine hesitancy being higher for some coming out of the pandemic.

She says seven years is far too long to have school-aged children not protected against such concerning diseases.

Needs will only grow, says Caledon mayor

The public health unit says they have less money than several nearby health units to try and tackle the issue, receiving one of the lowest provincial per capita funding rates in the province. 

For cost-shared programs, in Peel, public health was funded by the province at approximately $34 per capita in 2022, while Toronto and Hamilton each received $49 per capita, according to the health authority’s report. 

Caledon Mayor Annette Groves says the funding needs to change now to address problems that will continue to climb for Peel Public Health.

“Peel is a growing region and there will be greater need for funding as our resident population increases,” she said in a statement.

Caledon Mayor Groves at Queen's Park.
Caledon Mayor Annette Groves says Peel needs to receive more money from the province to handle public health in a growing population. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Province says funding has been increasing

Asked why Peel Public Health gets fewer dollars per capita, Ministry of Health spokesperson Hannah Jensen didn’t dispute Toronto and Hamilton received more funding per capita.

“Since 2018, our government has increased our investment into Peel Public Health by nearly 20 per cent,” she said in a statement.

Jensen said that’s in addition to the $100 million the provincial government invested into public health units across the province to provide support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government has restored a funding model where the province pays 75 percent of cost sharing for public health units and municipalities including Peel pay 25 percent, she said, noting the province had been paying 70 per cent for some time, so this represented an increase.

The province also increased base funding by one per cent per year, over the next three years, starting this year for public health units and municipalities including Peel, she added. 

Asked why Peel would still receive a lower per capita rate that some of its neighbours, the province did not respond directly. 

She says the government is working closely with its partners to get children caught up on vaccines.

Teenage girl gets a vaccination from a Toronto Public Health nurse at a school immunization clinic.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health says since 2018, the provincial government has increased investment into Peel Public Health by nearly 20 per cent. Peel Public Health says it receives significantly less from the province per capita than nearby Toronto or Hamilton and is advocating for more money. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Promoli says the per capita discrepancy in funding between regions is “shocking” and diverse populations need more, not less.

“It’s always important to try to meet people where they are,” she said. “To hear those questions, to hear the reasons why people are hesitant or even refusing and to try to understand…and then find the best ways to help people make decisions that will best protect their families.”

Peel Public Health says it plans to return to council soon with more details about the challenges and its plans to address them.

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