Prof. Amy Greer, Department of Population Medicine, spoke to the National Post about the risks of sending kids back into classrooms this fall.

She said the risks depend on the amount of community transmission occurring in a given area, and public health’s ability to find infections, trace their contacts and stamp out flare-ups.

Greer also spoke with CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning on the same topic, saying that while the current system of keeping children at home is not sustainable over the long term, ensuring that kids return to school is safely is challenging and, to be done well, will be costly.

The holder of the Canada Research Chair in Population Disease Modelling, Greer is part of a research team that is analyzing and modelling COVID-19 spread in order to advise public health agencies about how the disease might spread further.