Sask. minister: COVID-19 not a 'concern' for new school year

As the school year quickly approaches, COVID-19 is not the biggest concern for the first day of classes like it has been the last couple of years. That, according to the province’s education minister.

"It's not a concern that I've heard from school divisions," Education Minister Dustin Duncan said during a media availability Tuesday.

"I think that a lot of work went into improving our schools, improving the ventilation in schools."

Last week, the province confirmed cases of the new Omicron subvariant known as EG.5 or Eris in Saskatchewan. 

While much is to be learned about the new sub-variant, vaccination rates have remained stagnant in the province.

According to the latest data available on the province's community respiratory illness surveillance program (CRISP) report, not many people have rolled up a sleeve for a booster dose in the last six months.

"Which means that there may be some reduction -- not a huge reduction, perhaps, but some reduction of that collective protection in the collective immunity," University of Saskatchewan epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine said.

In the last six months, 2.6 per cent of people aged five and older have received their latest booster dose. That number goes down to 0.6 per cent when looking at ages five to 11.

Twenty-one per cent of people 12 and up have received a bivalent booster dose, which was made available last fall.

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That's why Muhajarine hopes ventilation and filtration is top of mind for this fall.

"Ventilation is so important," Muhajarine said. "I really hope particularly in relation to schools that the school divisions and school boards really would be paying attention to the ventilation issue in their classrooms."

Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools says it used $1.2 million in pandemic funding received from the province on ventilation upgrades the last few years, according to a statement provided by the school board.

The bulk of that was to replace an entire HVAC system at one school and 39 roof-top units across the division.

While it plans to re-engage with the local medical health officer, it said current funding efforts have been focused on core classroom functions and educational programming.

Preventative maintenance, which ventilation would fall under, has seen a 10 per cent decrease in year-over-year funding in the 2023-2024 budget.

Saskatoon Public Schools says its maintenance plan includes replacing all air filters with higher-efficiency MERV 13 filters where allowed, in addition to regularly scheduled maintenance and inspection.

"It's something that we'll continue to monitor, but it's not a concern that school divisions have raised going into the fall," Duncan said.

While the first day of classes is soon approaching, it appears COVID-19 concerns aren't as prominent as they used to be.