Montreal public health urging youth to get vaccinated ahead of back-to-school season

Montreal -

With three weeks left before the back-to-school season starts, Montreal public health is urging unvaccinated people, especially youth, to get their first doses.

Dr. David Kaiser, head of environmental health at Montreal public health, said Thursday there is a “worrisome” rise in cases in recent weeks while a large chunk of 12-17-year-olds are still not fully immunized.

“Over the last few days, we've seen also what appears to be an increase in the number of hospitalizations and that's really a worrisome sign if that continues,” he said.

There are 789 active cases in Montreal as of Thursday, according to the Quebec Public Health Institute (INSPQ). The province added 369 new COVID-19 cases, as well as an increase of 14 people in hospital and six more people in the ICU.

At a news conference, Kaiser also said some of new cases have been tied to international travel, including some cases of people who have received two doses of the vaccine.

“In the past few weeks, one third of cases are travellers outside of Canada,” he said, pointing to federal government messaging to avoid non-essential travel outside of Canada.

“Obviously, people want to go on vacation, people want to visit family, but that still is the message and I think it's an important message until we get to the end of our vaccination campaign, which is still a month and a half or two months away,” Kaiser said.

Only half of people aged 12 to 17 have been fully vaccinated, while 82 per cent have received one dose, according to provincial figures.

Public health officials say they are unable to provide a breakdown of whether people currently being infected with COVID-19 are vaccinated or not.

"Our team is working to get more data on our website," the INSPQ confirmed. 

The Health Ministry announced Wednesday that face masks will not be required in elementary and high school classrooms or outdoors when school starts, but they will be mandatory on school buses, in hallways and in other “high-risk” activities.

“When we're getting closer to school and we see where we're at in terms of the situation in Montreal, then mask wearing in the school setting will have to be on the table, but for sure we're always weighing against that making the school environment as good for learning as possible,” Kaiser said.

“We're gonna do what's necessary to protect kids, within the framework that the provincial government provides us.”

Public health said it reached out thousands of unvaccinated teens in recent weeks to understand their reluctance to get the shot. Kaiser said the main reasons for not getting vaccinated was concerns about safety of vaccines, their efficacy and the belief they are at less likely to catch the virus.

“Nobody is shielded [and] everybody's at risk for what we call long COVID and I think it's really important for young people, because of the types of symptoms that we're seeing with that, which may affect your memory and concentration,” he said.

“So for teens that want to get back to school and get back to learning. I think that's a really important risk that they need to keep in mind when they're thinking about whether to get vaccinated or not.”