TORONTO – With the return to school approaching by great strides, the pressure on the Ontario government to make vaccination of teachers and non-teaching staff mandatory increases. Raising the voice is the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) with a statement signed by the president, Dr. Adam Kassam: “Schools should be safe places for everyone. That’s why we’re asking for vaccination for teachers and those who work in schools in addition to the mandatory use of masks inside and other measures when schools reopen in September,” Kassam said.

The organization representing Ontario doctors said children are not eligible for vaccines at this time, so it is up to others to keep them safe.

The renewed call for stricter back-to-school safety measures follows two previous recommendations from the medical community: one was for mandatory vaccinations for health workers; the other called on the province to create a verifiable vaccination certificate that employers and private businesses could rely on to know that their customers, employees and colleagues have been fully vaccinated.

The concern is growing as the government may soon move on to Phase 4 of the Ontario reopening roadmap: Many political leaders and business owners hope that pandemic restrictions will be significantly eased if a sufficient number of Ontario residents are vaccinated and if the daily count of Covid cases drops dramatically. “But it is also worrying that many unvaccinated Ontario citizens have been infected with Covid-19 and the case count is driven by the Delta variant”, reads the OMA statement.

The association of doctors said that the best way to stop the spread of the virus is to prevent a resurgence of the pandemic is for everyone to get vaccinated as quickly as possible and continue to follow all public health measures. “The measures recommended by doctors will help us all stay safe – said OMA CEO Allan O’Dette – by protecting our health, we also protect a continuous reopening of our economy”.

But in addition to the OMA doctors, the Coalition for Kids – a group of doctors, researchers and parents who defend the rights and needs of children – has also begun to press the government and launched an online petition. The Coalition hopes that the province will impose vaccines on education workers, just as it should do for hospital workers this week.

And last night Prime Minister Doug Ford – as reported by CTV, News Toronto – met with his own cabinet to discuss the possibility of making the full vaccination of health workers and education against Covid-19 mandatory.

According to Fayed it is especially important that children under 12 are surrounded by vaccinated adults since the vaccines have not yet been approved for their age group. Vaccinated adults also means that the transmission of Covid-19 will be lower and could prevent a possible closure of schools. “We want to make sure that the government is on alert and does not just open schools and then close them when the number of cases becomes high – said Fayed – it must put in place every single strategy to make sure that the closure of schools is no longer an option”.

Fayed says the coalition is optimistic that vaccines will become mandatory for education workers and all other adults who work, volunteer or visit Ontario schools and childcare facilities. “The most important thing this September is to bring the children back to school – said Fayed – the children have done their part: they have been at home and for some of them, this is the third calendar year in the midst of the Covid pandemic”.