 3, 2, 1. Good morning. I'm Dr Bonnie Henry, BC's provincial health officer. And on the line in Vancouver today is Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside who will be speaking after my remarks this morning. I want to start by acknowledging that today and the day after our day of reflection, I'm very grateful to be here on the traditional and unceded territories of the Lekongun speaking people. The traditional keepers of this land, now the Esquimalt and Songi's First Nation. And I hope that we will all continue the reflection that we started yesterday in our first official day of truth and reconciliation, a reconciliation and have meaningful progress towards reconciliation with indigenous peoples across this province. Over the last few weeks we have listened to parents, teachers, and others who have heard about the issue of the need for this school year. Knowing that we are in a very different position than we were last September with the highly effective vaccines that we have in place. That has made a huge difference in our schools across the province. But we also recognize we are facing a more infectious strain of the virus this year. And there are still many children who are not yet able to be protected. As we continue to recognize that we are protected. As we saw in the data I presented on Tuesday, we have seen a steady rise in COVID-19 diagnoses in school-age children, particularly those 5 to 11 years of age who are not yet eligible for vaccination. And particularly a rapid increase in the last two weeks. The majority of COVID transmission continues to occur in homes and through social networks. And we have seen that throughout this pandemic. But we are also seeing a significant increase in testing in school-age children. And I have showed those data as well this week. Nevertheless, increased diagnoses has led to increase in numbers of potential exposure events and several school outbreaks have also been detected and reported. COVID-19 continues to circulate in our communities. And schools reflect this. More cases, clusters and outbreaks are occurring in communities with the vaccination rates are lowest. And this has resulted in a number of additional regional orders, as we know, and regional interventions will continue to remain an important part of our approach in this phase of our pandemic. Our school teams are committed to ensuring we are taking all necessary measures to ensure schools can continue to provide that all important in school learning for children in BC. We know the absolute importance of the social, emotional and physical growth that occurs in schools and the importance of this to the health and well-being of children and families across BC. We have reviewed these data and the information we have from the first month returned to school. And today I am extending the PHO masking order in schools to cover all students and staff in K-12 across the province. This order will be in school learning and training for the rest of the school term. This order will be in place for the remainder of this school term, additional layer to help reduce risk of transmission in classrooms and schools. I want to extend my heart felt thanks to all of the school staff, educators, and families who have supported the return to school for over 600,000 children across BC. We know this is the best and safest place for them to be in the community or in the province. And this additional measure we are putting in place today is one more layer that will ensure we can continue to engage and support children through this ever-changing pandemic. We will continue to do this in a way that supports the positive aspects that children need to have to be able to wear masks effectively in these settings. I have been talking to a lot of people that they can adapt to this. They have been learning, we have had those first few weeks of school to help get used to it again. And I am so impressed by how resilient and adaptable children are. And wearing your mask gives you superpowers. It makes you a superhero. It means you are protecting yourself, but you are also looking out for your classmates in your school and your community. And I know that many of you in the school communities can do to protect children and youth, particularly those who are too young to be vaccinated yet. We are thankful that COVID remains mostly a mild disease in children, but we do not want any child to be ill. And we are taking measures to prevent as much illness as we can. I know that these measures will assist in stopping other respiratory illnesses that we are starting to see as well. We are also seeing things like enteroviruses and adenoviruses that cause those common colds. And we are also seeing a bit of para influenza and RSV, all things that can make children ill with respiratory illnesses that can look an awful lot like COVID. It remains critically important that we do those daily health checks and keep children out of the school environment if they are unwell. And I ask workplaces to continue to be flexible to support parents so that they can get through this next few months as we navigate this phase of our pandemic. We will also be making sure that all of those other important in-class and in-school measures that help reduce transmission of respiratory viruses are in place and optimized as we head into this respiratory season. Everything from reduced mixing of classes, staggering break times, reducing people in the school system, particularly if they are not vaccinated, and things like ventilation and increasing outdoor activities, all of these are important layers and adding masks is just one more. I also want to speak to parents. We know how important the social activities and extracurricular activities are for children, for their growth and well-being, whether it's sports or music, we know that these are important for many children in supporting their ability to learn. And we are committed to keeping these going as much as possible as well, and that's why these are so particularly important. If you are living in an area where transmission is increased, it's all the more important that everybody around you are vaccinated so that we can keep these things growing. We need to know for the next few months particularly, we need to keep the priority on the school. This might mean keeping other social activities outside of school and allowing these high rates of vaccination are so protective and are making the difference in allowing all of these other important social interactions to occur too. We have been committed to providing as much data as we can and as we have to our school communities and the team of BCCDC has been working with our education partners and schools to develop a more detailed school specific report. Our first report will be available in the middle of the next three months. We will be able to provide to parents, to school communities and to the public. We know school is an important part of a young person's life for their health and well-being and it is a safe place for many children. And we know that this has been a challenging time for all of our children as we navigate these ever-changing trials and tribulations of this pandemic. It is about learning, seeing friends, getting that around, emotional and mental health support and we need to do everything we can to safely continue this. These efforts are about supporting students, parents, educators and everyone who make our schools an even safer and more welcoming place to be. I will now turn it over to Minister Whiteside. Good morning, everyone. I am Jennifer Whiteside, BCCDC's Minister of Education and I am pleased to join you this morning from the story of the Squamish, Musqueam and Slewa-tooth people. That acknowledgement today does have particular meaning I think as we reflect on our collective experiences across our communities, our province and our country yesterday as we commemorate Orange Shirt Day and the first national day of Truth and Reconciliation. It is a pleasure to be here with you this morning. I wanted to say that we are now a month into the new school year and hundreds of thousands of children across BC are enjoying being back in school with their friends, learning in class with their teachers, playing outside, playing sports, we are taking part in band practice. As we have known since the beginning of the pandemic, in person learning is absolutely essential to students' emotional and mental well-being as well as for their intellectual development. From the beginning of the pandemic, our top priority has been the safety of all students, teachers and staff. We would not have gotten through this in the way we have without the incredible work and commitment and dedication of our educators, of school staff, school leadership, district leadership, trustees, rights holders, everyone working together across our education system to put kids at the center of all that we do. That is why we have worked so closely with the public health and safety guidelines that keep everyone safe while allowing that crucial full-time in-person learning to occur. A year and a half now into the pandemic, our experience tells us that COVID exposures in schools are indeed a reflection of what is happening in the surrounding community. That continues to be true. We have developed health and safety guidelines for all schools in BC that reflect the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. And in August, we announced that the mask mandate that was in place last school year would continue for all students in grades 4 to 12, along with the strong recommendation for mask wearing for students in kindergarten to grade 3. And I want to say that with respect to our school safety plans, we in fact maintained many of the measures that were in place last year to protect our school communities and to provide continuity. I don't want to take a long-term look at the guidelines in particular who have led their districts through a very challenging time and who continue to work closely with health authority school medical officers in their regions to support the school safety plans. And indeed, as Dr. Henry has noted, today we are in a much different place because this year we have vaccines. And we know that immunization protects communities and protects children. And we know that those who have received their first dose and nearly 82% are fully vaccinated. We know the best protection for kids in our schools, especially for those who are too young to receive a vaccine, is for everyone who is eligible to be vaccinated. And I am asking you now, if you have not yet had your shot, now is your time. We also know that the Delta variant of COVID is more likely to go well, especially in areas with lower vaccination rates. And I, too, have had the opportunity to speak with many parents, educators, some kids as well, members of our school communities over the last few weeks. And I know that for many, the return to school is going well and in many cases, there has been minimal disruption from COVID. But for some, and particularly those communities experiencing high rates of COVID, there is a chance that people across the province will welcome these additional measures to keep our kids safe. So this additional step gives families and parents more reassurance, I think, about the safety of the school environment. We have also heard that parents want to be kept more up-to-date on what is happening in their child's school. And that is why public health is now providing regular updates on health authority websites about school and public health. And we have also announced that Dr. Henry has made with respect to the extension of the masking requirements in the public health order. We will, of course, update our education guidelines to reflect that, to reflect that all children in school, from all students in school and staff, from kindergarten to grade 12, must wear a mask while they are inside schools, including while at their desks and on school buses. And we have also announced that we will provide guidelines which already, as you know, require masks for students beginning and grade 4 in all public and independent schools. And again, with respect to notifications, I just want to reiterate that where there is a new, an exposure in a school, contact tracing continues to be in effect. And if your child has been, is at risk of an exposure from COVID, you will be notified. I think we will all welcome the report that Dr. Henry has spoken to with respect to a bit of a status update of what is happening in schools with respect to the virus. And look forward to seeing that in mid-October. So again, you know, as Dr. Henry outlined, these new measures extend our current health and safety guidelines. And there are many elements of that plan that are very crucial to ensure that we are, that the school communities are acting by every day. Doing the daily health check every day is very important. It is important that both students and staff stay home while they are sick. We have hand washing regimes. We have all of the strategies that are in place in our health and safety guidelines to reduce congestion and manage crowding in schools. We have school districts have been improving ventilation systems. And these measures, they were in place last year. They are in place this year. And just to remind folks that of course, public health officials continue to monitor what is happening in our schools very closely and continue to work with school districts. We continue to work at a provincial level with all of our education partners. And to respond to changes as they occur. And that is really what this is about today. Just by way of closing to say again, the most important tool in our toolbox right now is vaccination. And we have been doing such a remarkable job across the province. But we need to ensure we keep that going and I strongly encourage anyone who has not yet had an opportunity to get vaccinated to go and do so. Thank you so much. And I think Dr. Henry will start with questions on that side. And Dr. welcome everyone. A reminder to reporters on the line, please press star 1 to enter the queue. You may ask one question and one follow-up. A reminder as well since we are in two separate locations today. You are welcome to address your question to the spokesperson of your desire but we will probably start with Dr. Henry and Minister White-side may follow up. Please be patient with us as we work through this. Thank you. Thank you. I am just wondering what changed in the last three days we were talking about this very issue on Tuesday. Does this signify, like this move that you are making today, that you didn't have public confidence in your back-to-school plan? No, I don't believe that's it at all. We have been monitoring the data and I am not the only person who makes these decisions so it is important to look at both. It is in partnership with the school districts, the parent advisory committees and others. It was a matter of time once we had the data that we presented on Tuesday to look at what are the important measures that we need to do. I indicated, I thought quite clearly on Tuesday that these were things that we were looking at. We weren't at the place yet where we had all of the decisions made. I do. I know that this back-to-school plan was announced in late June, promising a school year that was as normal as possible. Maths are a small step here, but why not mandate vaccinations for all adults in the school system and bring in portable air filtration for each classroom as Toronto has done? I will let the minister talk to the ventilation question because I know a lot of work has been done on that. We strongly encourage everybody in the school system to be immunized. We knew that in June, we knew that when we updated in August, we have been following that of course with messages every day since that time. One of the things that we know is that we are not seeing a lot of transmission in the data I showed last week or on Tuesday, it shows that quite clearly that in that older age group in the 12 to 17, we were most started to see leveling off. We haven't seen transmission in the staff in school settings as much as we were seeing last year. So these tell us that the immunization program is working. And the challenge of course is that everything we need to do now is to make sure that we are keeping the younger kids from getting infected with COVID over this next period of time until vaccine is available for them. And the challenge is that the local MHOs are working with each school. And when we see people who are exposed or where there is outbreaks or clusters in the school, those who are not immunized are excluded from that environment, which is what we do for other infectious diseases as well. And that means that can be quite disruptive. So those are other incentives to make sure that people are immunized. And that is one of the ways that we are able to make sure that we are able to keep the rates of immunization in most school settings. And now we will go to Vancouver to hear from Minister Whiteside. Thank you. And with respect to ventilation, our government has invested $87.5 million over the last two years for districts to do the very important work of properly maintaining and upgrading their HVAC systems. And we will look at the fine details of how that work has unfolded. And to look at those particular areas where there may need to be particular mitigation efforts in place such as portable air filters. And those measures have been implemented by districts where warranted. For example, in Abbotsford, the school district has invested in portable air filtration systems for deployment in classrooms where they are unable to upgrade the mechanical HVAC systems. For the next question, we continue on the phone lines. We go to Camille Baines, Canadian press. Hi there, Dr. Henry. A few days ago you mentioned it would take some time to post information on exposures and cases. On average, how many days is it taking and if you could please walk me through the process, that would be great. Thank you very much. Depending on how many cases are taken? How stretched our public health resources are. And as much as we are trying to ramp up the public health resources, there is a finite pool of people to do that work. So what happens is public health is notified when a positive laboratory test comes in. So we get automatic notification from the lab. So somebody has to be a child, has some results, usually is within 24 hours. And we now have a process that parents or people who are tested themselves are automatically notified. Usually by text, but it could be by email as well. And so you are likely to know at the same time that public health receives that notification. And when we receive that notification, there is, as you know from looking at our numbers every day, there can be people that are tested positive every day. So public health has a system where the intake looks at the age of the person, the setting that they are in. And so we prioritize school-aged children for example to do that case follow-up. But it does mean that one of the public health team, the case and contact management team calls the parent and finds out the information about where the child was, what symptoms they have, where they were exposed to, because remember we are still trying to connect and look for clusters and outbreaks in our communities, in our schools, and also where they were during the period they were infectious. So it can take as short as 24 hours. That is our attempt is to make sure that once we get that positive lab report that we are trying to contact cases within 24 hours. But you can see that that may be a fact that the parent knows that their child is ill and when they get the test result back. And in some cases, particularly right now with a large number of cases that are occurring in the north and some parts of the interior, it can be a delay of two to three days. But our attempt is to try and get to most cases within 24 hours. So once that case investigation is done and there is a determination that the child is getting during their infectious period, and they had the type of contact that it might be transmitted to others. And so things like, was their mask wearing, what types of activities were they partaking in, et cetera. That is when we put the notification out and contact those who were potentially exposed directly. And that is when it gets posted on the website. So I think we all need to recognize that this does take time. And it is absolutely important for parents to know that if their child is sick and it does come back positive, you can share that information with those people that your child has had contact with. And I know there has been some reports of parents doing that. And I think that is great. We all need to support each other to do the best we can during this period of time. And public health is there to do our best to support you. And I think that is a great feature because we do those detailed case investigations and that is when we can tell whether there was an outbreak happening where there was transmission. And we can link it between different classes and sometimes it is related to siblings, sometimes it is related to things, social events that have happened outside of the school setting that we can actually see that bigger pattern as well. So it is all of us working together on this. And it is important for parents to know that if our child is sick, keeping them home and away from others until they are feeling better. Camille, do you have a follow-up? Yes, please. I am also hearing that for some schools, the information being posted is quote-unquote selective so that not all of the cases or exposures are being included and parents are therefore still having to rely on each other or another person to provide information on its website. Could you please address those concerns? Yes, so, you know, there is always, there are many reasons, as I have talked about, while a child may be or an adult in the school system may not have been a risk while in the school and parents can share that information about their child's illness, but public health will be posting when there is a risk in the school system. So, I think we are catching up with that now. And yes, sometimes parents will know and they will know the information from other parents prior to public health getting all of the pieces connected together. So, I think we have to work together on this. This is not about, it is not about saying that this is wrong, we will never be able to catch up to somebody passing that information together on this. It is not about us versus them and who is getting things right, it is about making sure we all have the information we need. Now, we will come to the room. The next question goes to Richard Zussman, Global News. Developmental Binder was asking, California has now announced their mandating vaccines in the entire school system that includes children as well, phasing in those under 12 when they are eligible for vaccine. So, why can't BC get ahead of this and get to this mandate which many may think is inevitable? And also, we are, I will leave it there. Thanks. We have talked about this many times. There are different ways that we can have conditions of employment that require immunization and there is a whole lot of different pieces that go with that. So, my responsibility under public health orders is to look at those highest risk environments that are in the health system. So, that is what I am focusing on from public health orders. We absolutely are supportive. There are many other higher risk environments where the virus can be transmitted between people and we think of group accommodations, industrial camps, prisons. There are many settings where an employer needs to have those policies and the employees. I do. There are wide exemptions for masks right now on the government website. Are those exemptions still going to exist and who is going to be in charge of enforcing them? And on a separate issue, there is a petition circulating around concern that at Whistler Black Home there is no vaccine certificate required to ski and ride is the province considering adding ski resorts as a place where the vaccine is. It is a place where the vaccine will apply. Okay, complex. I have forgotten your first question already, you got me too. Oh, mask exemptions. So, you know, there are some people who have challenges wearing masks. We know that and we have put in place exemptions that allow people not to wear masks in certain situations. And that goes for schools too. And we have been approaching it in schools as a very mask positive environment. And yes, there are some children that have difficulties with it. And we know that, especially younger children, it can be a challenge to keep it on and not play with it and it's irritating and some days you're not feeling. So we need to have that positive reinforcement in schools and I know educators and teachers are doing that in a really positive way and that's how it works. And I believe in masks that they are not entitled to have the same access to those indoor environments. Accommodation could mean that a grocery store can take your order online and have a drop-off at the door. So it does not mean just because you don't believe in masks that you can still do those same things in the same way because that could be putting others at risk. So if you are not able to wear a mask, could be online shopping, taking take-away, et cetera. And the Human Rights Commissioner has supported us in those restrictions and ability to accommodate but not necessarily doing everything that somebody who can wear a mask can do. In terms of the ski resorts, the vaccine card is in place for all of those activities that we have and all of those activities like restaurants, like the restaurant on the hill, et cetera. So the outdoor skiing environment we know was not the risky environment. However, I would encourage all of the ski resorts to put in place those measures that protect people as best possible. And now we will send it over to Vancouver to hear from Minister Whiteside. Thank you. I just wanted to weigh in on the enforcement and just to reiterate that I know how much effort educators and school communities have put into creating positive cultures around mask-wearing in schools, including at the younger grades, including in K-3. And I know that in many communities, this won't be a big shift because this is happening anyway. And we would expect that that positive encouragement to continue to be the way in which the way in which school communities approach this question. It is very much as they have been doing throughout the past year. And I think it has been quite remarkable to see the degree to which in many schools students have really picked up on this notion of caring for one another and doing everything that they can do as well to pitch in with the effort. And for the next question, we will ask the question to the CBC. Thank you very much. Doctor, are you tracking instances of vaccinated parents and grandparents, for instance, catching COVID from their unvaccinated school-aged children, or hearing from multiple vaccinated adults who have gotten COVID after classroom exposures? How big of a concern is that? So I'm not on an individual basis. We do know there have been some instances and sometimes it is very challenging to understand exactly who is vaccinated. And as we have seen in the numbers that we report, of course, there is a breakthrough transmission. But I will say how important it is because we know that people who are vaccinated are much less likely to get sick, much less likely to get severely ill or hospitalized, and we presented those data as well. And that holds. So even if a child brings it home, we know that if your parents are vaccinated, they are much less likely to get severe illness and less likely to pass it on to others. So it is a challenge sometimes to know exactly who is transmitting to who. But we know as well that there are communities, Fraser East, we know in much of the North, communities in the interior where vaccination rates are not high enough and we have a lot of transmission in the community that it is going to continue to spread. And that will help us curtail that so that we can continue the all important in-class learning that children need. Susan, do you have a follow-up? Yes, thank you. Just one quick thing first. If you could clarify as far as the timing, is this the renewed for K-3 ending in the spring break, December or spring break, rather, Christmas break? And then will you reevaluate it? And then also, is there a role for rapid testing in trying to help us in the respiratory season outside of the industrial business settings? Should rapid tests be made available to people, parents, for instance, we have seen it done in the UK who want to either rule COVID out quickly at home if they have symptoms or perhaps catch it rather than tying up resources at testing centres? Yes, really good question about that. Let me go back to the first one. This will be in place to the end of this term and we will be using the data to not to wonder when this is going to end. The mask order is in place until January, so that's at least until then, depending on what happens in the next little while. And of course, we're hopeful that there will be vaccination for younger children in the coming months as well. So that will factor into how long we'll need to keep this up in schools. Having said that, we know that this is respiratory season, which means there's a lot of people who are asking, does help to prevent other things as well. And this year, we're starting to see more circulation of other respiratory viruses than we saw last year. And influenza is likely to make much more of an appearance this year than last year. And we do have safe and effective influenza vaccines for children and especially school-aged children. We know that influenza, unlike COVID, can cause very serious illness more frequently in children. So that's something to pay attention to. And influenza vaccinations will be available very soon, too. In terms of rapid testing, the UK has a program where they're using take-home, at-home, lateral-flow tests, and we don't have those types of tests available yet in great numbers. There's been two that have recently been approved for use in Canada by Health Canada, but they're not yet available. And I think there's a role for that type of test for at-home testing. Right now, though, what we're doing is making available the gargle, the swish and gargle test, to school-aged kids around the province, making it more available so that you can pick up the kits through schools, pharmacies, and other places. It is a PCR-based test, so it's still a lab-based test. And the strategy moving into the fall has been to be able to test for multiple viruses at once. So depending on the symptoms of the person going in for testing, we'll be testing for all of those. So COVID, RSV influenza, and some of the para-influences as well. So that's what we've been ramping up over the last little while, one for surveillance, but also so that we can tell which are the viruses, which are the mandatory viruses that are causing the most illness in different parts of the province as we get through this next few months. For the next question, we go to Mary Griffin, Czech News. Thank you very much. Dr. Henry, I'm just wondering, is there a possibility that, because you've been asked, of course, many, many times about the mask mandate, and now it's implemented until the end of the school year, that there's a possibility that there's going to be a mandatory vaccination in the school system, because now we're hearing from the BCTA that they're not opposed to mandatory vaccination. Are they not, the staff and teachers also, members of those communities where the COVID-19 infection rates are rising? Absolutely. And, you know, we absolutely expect that all school staff take advantage of the prioritization that we gave to the community and the prioritization that we gave to school staff early on in the immunization program to take advantage of the protection that it offers, not just them, but their community, their own families, as well as the school community. And, as I mentioned earlier, my focus in terms of provincial health officer orders around vaccination is on those highest risk settings, where the risk to those who are exposed from workers is the greatest. And that, as you know, includes long-term care and assisted living, which is incredibly important. We know more and more, even with fully vaccinated residents, unvaccinated people introducing the virus into those settings is extremely dangerous and leads to unnecessary deaths. So, that is our focus. We also have put in a requirement for masking as a condition of employment for all healthcare workers, recognizing as well that those are high-risk environments for people who have underlying health conditions and are more vulnerable to infection to severe illness and to death. It is an employer-employee relationship in many other settings. And we are seeing increasingly that employers are requiring vaccination in many different settings. And school settings are no different. Do you have a follow-up, Mary? I do. Thanks very much. You just mentioned the vaccinations for younger children. Just wondering if there is any update on when parents could expect that for the under-12 group. And just following up, part two on Richard's question on the resorts and you suggested that you would encourage all those resorts to have their children. What was the first one again? And that stayed on the vaccination for younger children under 12. It has been a long week. So we know that Pfizer has submitted a part of their data package to the FDA. I know Health Canada is still waiting for that. We expect it to be. So what happens is they have done a number of press releases about their phase 3 trials and the effectiveness of the vaccine or the efficacy of the vaccine in stimulating a strong immune response in children. They need to submit that entire package which shows all of the safety data and how well it worked and the immunogenicity data. So it's what we call a bridging study. And then Health Canada reviews that. What we also know is that this is a new formulation. It's not a new one until the data package is submitted. But we understand it's a smaller dose. So 10 micrograms instead of 30 of the antigen. And that it's likely to be reformulated so it's a fridge stable project. Which is great news for us because that makes it a whole lot easier to distribute. And once the package is submitted to Health Canada, history has shown that it will be able to do all of the effectiveness data, all the effectiveness data, and they have to review the manufacturing, the safe manufacturing processes as well. So it may be as early as the end of October is what we're hearing, but it may take more time than that. But I am really hopeful that we will have vaccination for younger, the 5 to 11 age group anyway, before the end of this calendar year and hopefully as soon as possible. In terms of the vaccine card, so our vaccine card program is very specific to the BC vaccine card program is very specific to certain settings. So if you want to go to a bar or a pub or a restaurant or the restaurant on the hill, then you need to have your vaccine card. I would encourage all of the resorts to look at all of those settings where it might be prudent for them to have the vaccine card. The risk is less when you're outside. We know that in smaller groups and when you're wearing masks and goggles, et cetera. So for a short period of time on a gondola, the risk is probably not the same as if you're sitting down inside without a mask on, having a drink with a group of people. Next question goes to Robin Crawford, News 1130. So much for taking my question. What's the advice for families here in Metro Vancouver with getting together? You know what the advice is, get vaccinated right now so that you can get together safely with your family. This virus is still out there. If you're going to have older members of your family coming together, then you want to make sure that everybody who comes into your household is immunized. We know there are additional people in the community. And that means you can only have five other people or one other household together if they're not all fully vaccinated. The vaccine is our way to mitigate the risk across the board. So now is the time to start thinking about getting that vaccine so you can go home and visit with your granny or grumpy or your uncles or sisters who are immune compromised with those people in the community who are not vaccinated. Do you have a follow-up, Robin? I do, yes. And my second question is for minister Whiteside. You just spoke a little bit about keeping that positivity in the classrooms with the mask mandate. Is there any specific advice you have for the younger age teachers with having the kids not playing with their masks and taking them off while sitting at their desks? I think we have this now with COVID. This is the third school year that we are entering into with COVID and with our safety plans in place. And so there is considerable experience out there on the part of educators. And I think as Dr. Henry said earlier, it can sometimes be difficult for little kids. But I also think that there has been that many parents in many communities have worked very hard with their children to get them to see many little ones out there when they are shopping and such wearing their masks. So I think there can sometimes be challenges, but we have very skilled and compassionate and smart educators who have been working on this and who are going to continue to do that work with the little ones. And for our final question, we go to Colton Davies, radio and out. Colton, are you there? Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Bringing this up again as we heard concerns from parents in recent days about cohorts. Some parents around here wanting cohorts to be brought back as a way to limit exposure in elementary schools, particularly with the grades that aren't vaccinated up to grades 6 and 7. Is the province planning or even considering bringing back cohorts for elementary students and why or why not? I'll start and then maybe I'll turn it over to you. What were the things that impeded schools from having been able to cause more problems than benefit or impeded the working of the school? So we had the concept of cohorts last year or learning groups that were different sizes depending on the age of the children and the school system. And they, we found that they weren't a tool that was needed to prevent transmission and they caused significant challenges in operations of schools at all levels. So this year we've taken out that concept of the official cohort or learning group but what schools have done is on a school by school basis looked at the measures that are important and the important things were reducing the mixing of grades in particular, reducing the number of people in the school, reducing the grade of the school, reducing the group gatherings, whether it's assemblies and other things. So those are the things that they've looked at to try and make sure that we're having the effect that we want which is to prevent transmission between large groups in the school setting and not impeding the operations. And it made a big difference particularly in the older grades but also in the younger grades about which classes could be taught by schools. So it was not found to be helpful in terms of disease control and it was found to be impeding the operations of schools. So I think there's other measures that we're using now rather than having the official learning groups that we had put in place last year. And Minister, maybe you want to talk to that as well. Yes, thank you, Dr. Henry. And it's important to note that cohorts operated differently in schools. And there was, when public health determined in June, as part of our update in June, that it would not be, cohorts would not be, learning groups would not be required, there was really unanimity around our education sector table. That was a good thing because it posed very many challenges in many respects for learning, particularly for and timetabling, particularly for grades, for the high schools, for the high school grades. With respect to elementary schools, as Dr. Henry pointed out, there are many different mechanisms and ways that schools can use that are enumerated in or that are listed out in our safety guidelines around managing congestion and crowds in schools. And that has to do, that will be very much like how they operated last year. And it may be staggering time on the playground. It may be staggering recess times, staggering lunch break times, those kinds of things. So our school, our principals and school staff are very, very used to and adept at that. I think that there are, there is also great attention being paid right now to, you know, not having assemblies of many hundreds of kids together. I think that people are being very careful out there about respecting and respecting how quickly we move back to some of those kinds of activities. And again, these measures will be supported by our health authority school, medical health officials who work, our officers who work very closely with school districts. They track what is happening in particular communities and work with the districts and the schools to put in those and encourage those, in those particular recommendations around how to manage those issues. And the Interior Health Authority right now, we have a set of recommendations in place right now in Interior Health around limiting gatherings inside schools, limiting visitors to schools because of the particular conditions, the particular conditions there. So we still have those tools available. Cole, do you have a follow-up? Do you think, you know we've heard, and this would be for Henry, I know we've heard from you and you've heard from the people who are now with the unvaccinated and it was pointed out to me this week that includes anyone under 12 years old and most elementary school-aged kids anyways. And so I'm paraphrasing based on conversations I've had with parents in recent days. But what would you say to parents, what assurances might you have for parents who feel that their elementary school-aged kids might be more at risk right now than last year compared to so far through this school year compared to last year? I hear you, I know there's a lot of anxiety as this pandemic goes on and on and it changes. And we've had to change and adapt as we've learned more, as we've seen a more transmissible variant. But I think I can say with confidence that we are in a better place in our schools. That's because the adults in the school system have the ability to make sure that all of the adults and older siblings who are able to be vaccinated are, that protects the young kids, it protects the schools and keeps them open, but it also protects our family and our community. And that's what we need to do right now. We need to raise up all of our immunization levels because it is what makes us safer as a community. It means we're working together and it is that active altruism that is going to get us through this. So even if you have concerns, get those questions answered. We're here to help answer those questions. This is about all of us working together. And schools are an important reflection of how we're doing as a community working together. And there are many parts of this province where we need to do better. We need to support each other and get vaccinated. And for today, thank you very much. Have a great day. Thank you.