TORONTO – Preparations are underway in the city of Toronto pending the green light from Health Canada for the pediatric vaccine that could already arrive in mid-November. 

Information sessions, meetings with families to help them have confidence in the drug against Covid-19 and to receive from them an input about the places for its administration have already begun. In addition, on Friday, parents of children in all publicly funded schools received an email survey that contains 15 questions and is available in various languages.

It will be precisely through the answers given that the city aims to know the intentions of the parents when it comes to vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 years, as well as their preferences on how and where to vaccinate them. The city also hopes to gather socio-demographic information on factors such as race and income in order to better focus the efforts of the vaccination campaign. “Parents are asked for example where they would like to have their children immunized based on what is most convenient – said Toronto Mayor Jonh Tory – they take into account the hesitations that parents or children might have, the fear of needles and things like that so that we can have this information wide-ranging. And this helps us to prepare the necessary plans.”

It will be possible to participate in the survey until November 7th. Suggesting that schools be included in the launch of vaccinations to children was the Covid-19 Science Advisory Table in Ontario.

Although vaccinating children against Covid is considered by the scientific world a step in the right direction in the fight against Covid-19, the Ontario government has decided not to make it a requirement to be able to attend school and not to add it to the list of mandatory vaccinations that includes diseases such as polio and measles.

To declare that the vaccine “at least for now” will not be integrated into the Immunization of School Pupils Act is Dr. Kieran Moore, Chief Medical Officer of Health of Ontario. “We need to look at the trend of this virus and the extent of its threat. If it persists season after season and it is a continuous danger we will re-examine what to do with the government… At the moment our goal is to improve the management of the epidemic within the school environment and to put local public health units in a position to have at their fingertips the data they need to be able to respond to epidemics”.

Meanwhile, Moore has hinted that even though Ontario aims to remove restrictions, including mask mandates in March in public places, that doesn’t mean schools will do it too. “I think we’re being extremely cautious about the school environment,” Dr. Moore said.

Last Friday, meanwhile, 93 infections were reported in schools in the province – 85 students, 7 teachers and a non-teaching member – 520 are the schools with at least one case, those closed are two.