3 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,D ecem ber 17,2020 insidehalton.com Cases are on the rise. Dr. Hamidah Meghani, commissioner and medical officer of health for Halton Region, provided a pandemic update to the Halton Catholic District School Board on Nov.3. The presentation came a day af- ter the region had experienced an all- time high in COVID-19 cases, which have been steadily rising since the fall. Operating schools have proven to be a challenge during the pandemic with 69 schools across the region seeing at least one confirmed case of the virus at some point. Here are three highlights from the presentation: 1. Would you support mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all students and staff ? "Without knowing the certain features of a future vaccine, such as its effective- ness and duration of protection, it's diffi- cult to make a decision of whether it should be mandatory or not. There's a lot of thought process that goes into whether something should become mandatory at a provincial level," said Meghani. 2. How likely is it that students will be spreading the virus to each other at school? "The evidence related to the spread be- tween children and from children to adults is still emerging, but what is agreed upon is the risk of transmission appears low when infection control mea- sures are in place. These reports also note within clusters and outbreaks, adult transmission seems to be more common than child-to-adult or adult-to-child transmission," said Meghani. 3. What's the best way to prevent the spread of the virus in schools? "I cannot stress enough the impor- tance of the key public health measures, which include staying home when ill, practising physical distancing as much as possible, wearing a mask and cohort- ing -- that is students should limit their contact with only their classmates and a single teacher for as much of the school day as possible," said Meghani. NEWS WILL THE COVID-19 VACCINE BE MANDATORY IN SCHOOLS? 69 SCHOOLS ACROSS THE REGION HAVE HAD AT LEAST 1 CONFIRMED CASE OF COVID-19 ROLAND CILLIERS rcilliers@metroland.com