[GTranslate]Minister Stephen Lecce is pressing the federal government to plan ahead for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines for children and young people. When their turn comes, we must not be unprepared.

In a letter sent to federal ministers Ahmed Hussen, Patty Hajdu and Anita Anand, Ontario’s Education Minister writes that it is critical that Canada looks ahead and applies “lessons learned about the importance of future planning” in obtaining and distributing vaccines to students and children as soon as they are approved by Health Canada. “Numerous clinical studies are already underway to evaluate the safety and efficacy of vaccines in children and young people of different ages – we read in the letter bearing the signature of Lecce – some of these clinical trials could begin to provide the results in a few months. While this is promising news, it also underscores the need to immediately start planning so that Canada is the leader in vaccine administration.” “Numerous clinical studies are already underway to evaluate the safety and efficacy of vaccines in children and young people of different ages – we read in the letter bearing the signature of Lecce – some of these clinical trials could begin to provide the results in a few months. While this is promising news, it also underscores the need to immediately start planning so that Canada is the leader in vaccine administration.”

Lecce says that vaccination of young people will be a fundamental part of ending the pandemic and urges Hussen, Minister of Families, Children and Social development, to immediately obtain a “robust supply” of vaccines from several potential suppliers.

The arrival of vaccines, in short, must not find the government careless but ready to efficiently manage the administration of doses to children and young people. For this very reason, Lecce says, vaccines should be “quickly” examined and if safe approved by Health Canada as pharmaceutical companies complete their clinical trials.

Pharmaceutical companies, for their part, seem ready to start testing Covid-19 vaccines on children. Last week, for example, Moderna announced its intention to enlist 6,750 children between the United States and Canada, who will be inoculated with two doses after 28 days in order to understand the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in younger patients.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson is ready to experiment with its vaccine with children between the ages of 12 and 17. AstraZeneca has also started testing with younger age groups.

And although currently only approved for adult use, according to the American pharmaceutical giant, doses of Pfizer-BioNTech can be used by people under the age of 16.

Last year Pfizer included nearly 300 young people between the ages of 16 and 18 in its trial. It has now been extended to 2,259 adolescents aged between 12 and 15.

And while vaccine safety test results are expected in younger people, infections in Ontario schools have risen to 12,237. In the last twenty-four hours, according to the website of the provincial government, there have been 215 of which 170 are teachers and 45 students. There are 1,116 schools where outbreaks of the virus are active at the moment, 48 closed schools. These include Brian Public School and Victoria Village Public School where attendance classes were interrupted Monday on the advice of Toronto Public Health.

At Brian Public School, seven students and two staff were infected at the school, while six students were infected with Covid at Victoria Village Public School.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) also announced that St. Dominic Savio Catholic School – where five cases were identified among students – has been closed. Two other TCDSB schools remain closed where outbreaks of the virus have broken out: St. Charles Garnier Catholic School and Our Lady of Victory Catholic School.

Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Ford does not guarantee that March Break will start as scheduled on April 12: “I cannot give an answer at this time – he said yesterday – the Minister of Education, as well as the Chief Medical Officer will keep an eye on the situation, I do not want to make predictions two weeks in advance”.