RNAO responded to the province’s school reopening guidelines, outlining gaps in the plan. Ontario students lost more days of in-person instruction than those in any other province or territory. While RNAO agrees a return to school is vital, the plan fails to mandate vaccination for teachers and educational staff and neglects to specify physical distancing requirements in schools. “Given how effective vaccines are in the face of the highly transmissible Delta variant and the emerging Lambda variant, nurses will continue to insist on mandatory vaccination for all educational staff, unless they have a medical exemption,” says RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun. The government plan requires masking for students in Grades 1 through 12, however the association wants this extended to include those in kindergarten. Sign RNAO’s Action Alert to urge the province to implement mandatory vaccination for health-care workers, teachers and educational staff. (inSauga.com, Aug. 3)