All B.C. students should be wearing masks due to variants: union

The head of the teachers' union in British Columbia is urging public health officials to expand guidelines on masks to include elementary students after seven schools reported cases involving a COVID-19 variant.

Teri Mooring of the B.C. Teachers Federation says school districts should be allowed to impose measures based on their needs, considering the variants were all found in schools in the Fraser Health region.

Variants of concern have been identified in all seven schools and health officials say testing so far indicates it is linked to the one first identified in the United Kingdom.

Looks like the #covid19 variants of concern are taking off in Surrey schools at the moment. @bctf is asking that districts be allowed to exceed safety precautions, ie by universal mask mandate, etc. Sounds reasonable to me. #bced

— Tracy Sherlock (@tracysherlock) February 22, 2021

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced mandatory mask guidelines earlier this month for students in middle and high schools.

Mooring says she doesn't agree with the current directive, which says students don't have to wear masks at their desks.

Henry has said that's the same as in offices or restaurants, but Mooring says students sit close together and the other environments don't compare well with schools.

School districts should have the flexibility to require students to wear masks because a provincewide directive does not take into account regions that are experiencing a high number of cases and now variants as well, Mooring said.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced mandatory mask guidelines earlier this month for students in middle and high schools.

Mooring said she doesn't agree with the current directive, which says students are not required to wear masks at their desks. Henry has said that's the same as in offices or restaurants, but Mooring said students sit close together and the other environments don't compare well with schools.

Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside told a news conference on Monday that the health and safety of staff and students is "our highest priority."

Deputy provincial health officer Dr. Reka Gustafson said the policy on masks in schools is based on the ability of individuals to comply with it and there are no plans to make any changes.

"I would say that based on what we know about the new variants of COVID-19, I would not recommend a change in our masking recommendation. But as with everything else in this pandemic we have continued to learn, we continue to review the evidence."

Dr. Elizabeth Brodkin, chief medical health officer of the Fraser Health authority, said six of the schools linked to the variant are in Surrey and another is in Delta.

Testing of 300 students and staff will be completed on Tuesday but 35 staff have tested negative so far, Brodkin said. She declined to say how many cases have been detected at the schools, adding that some cases tested so far have been linked to the variant first identified in the U.K.

More in-depth testing will be done on the remaining cases to determine which variant is involved, Brodkin said.

"Most of the cases that we've identified over the weekend and in the previous week, in fact, don't appear to be linked to someone who has travelled, which means that these viruses are now in our community."

A joint statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix said there are 28 new confirmed cases of variants of concern, for a total of 101.

It said 58 of those cases were found in the Fraser Health region.

Dr. Victoria Lee, CEO of Fraser Health, said starting immediately, COVID-19 testing recommendations have been expanded to include all high-risk contacts of individuals who test positive for the virus, regardless of whether they are experiencing symptoms.