Participation of Vaccinated Population
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River
Heights):
Mr. Deputy Speaker, physical
fitness and athletic activities are important to good health, especially in
young people.
Once hospitalizations and ICU cases
are down, will the government allow full participation in
fitness and athletic activity, including team sports,
in communities and regions which reach a specific proportion of the
population vaccinated as, for example, in communities with 80 per cent
of Manitobans 12 years of age or older having had at least one of their vaccine
doses?
And will the government also use
rapid testing, as Utah has shown works, to keep team sports safe? I table a
copy of the Utah studies.
Hon. Kelvin Goertzen (Acting
Minister of Health and Seniors Care): I know that public health, led by Dr. Roussin, has often
indicated that, whether it's schools, which he believes should be the last
things to close and the first things to open, or youth activity is extremely,
extremely important and they've done everything they can during this pandemic
to keep those opportunities going for youth. But we also know that there's been
a disruption and that has been hard on young people. We hear that from many
young people.
So I do know that, in the planning
for reopening–and we all hope that can be sooner than later; we have a fight
right now when it comes to the third wave, but when we look at reopening that
is one of the priorities that public health has placed: ensuring that young
people can have that activity that they so desire and that they so need for
their physical and mental health, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
The study itself was summarized as follows in an article in CDC’s “Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report” The full
article can be found at this link.
“Utah implemented two high school COVID-19 testing programs to
sustain in-person instruction and extra-curricular activities. During November 30, 2020-March 20, 2021,
among 59,552 students who received testing, 1886 (3.2%) had a positive
result. These programs facilitated the
completion of approximately 95% of high school extracurricular competition
events and saved an estimated 109,752 in-person instruction student days.”
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