Children will soon be filling this playground at Burnham Public School in Cobourg. The chief medical officer warns adults to get vaccinated to help protect children returning to school in the fall.
The report broadcast on Northumberland 89.7 FM:
Northumberland residents are being urged to get vaccinated before the fall to protect school children heading back to the classroom.
Dr. Natalie Bocking, chief medical officer for the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit, says the more adults who are fully vaccinated, the safer children will be.
Currently, children under 12 are not able to get a vaccination. As Bocking explains, it is up to all eligible people to help keep them safe.
“I guess part of that is when we think about schools, and we think about schools needing to reopen COVID virus infections in schools really a reflection of the amount of COVID infections happening at a community level,” Bocking said. “So if we’re not seeing many COVID infections within the community, we’re not going to see many infections in school. And we really want to be doing everything we absolutely can to ensure that schools are open kids are attending in person because we know the long-term benefits of that are tremendous, and the harms associated with having to close schools or move them to virtual learning have been there and have been significant. So we’re protecting their certainly their individual health but also their mental health and their futures by continuing to support schools to be open.”
Vaccination clinics continue to be open if you are looking to get a shot. For more information, check with the health unit’s website.
I’m Robert Washburn reporting for Northumberland 89.7 FM.