Schools in Saskatchewan are being kept open for now in the face of COVID-19
Manitoba is closing its schools from March 23 until April 13. Ontario is closing schools from March 14 to April 5. Alberta is not closing its schools at this point.
“Any recommendation to close schools is based on risk assessment and made on a case-by-case basis,” said Dr. Saqib Shahab, the province's chief medical health officer. “The decision to close schools should not be made in the absence of valid public health reasons and the benefits and risks need to be considered carefully.”
At a previous press conference, Shahab said closing schools would result in children congregating in other places instead.
The province said the risk in Saskatchewan still remains low but is increasing.
“We all need to ensure we are taking measures as individuals to maintain social distancing, including staying home if sick and keeping children out of school if sick,” a press release said.
The government said the positive cases in Saskatchewan are still primarily travel-related and there is no sustained community transmission at this time.
There could be locally on the direction of the local medical health officer or more broadly on the direction of the chief medical health officer.
The criteria on which was province will close schools is based on a number of factors including:
- Evidence of sustained transmission within the community
- Rapid increase of local cases
- Transmission without a known link to travel or confirmed cases.
