Vaccine safety and tests for kids — all your coronavirus questions

With kids across Canada heading back to school this week and the weeks to come, parents have many questions around possible coronavirus vaccines, masks for kids and even testing.

Speaking with hosts Jeff McArthur and Carolyn Mackenzie of Global News’ The Morning Show, Dr. Lukasz Kwapisz based in Houston, Texas, went through some of the most common coronavirus questions people have heading back to school and work.

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For parents, a lot of the questions have been around protecting students. When asked about providing tests for children who are feeling ill, Kwapisz says it would be prudent to test students with symptoms.

“It should be mandatory, since schools have opened up in the U.S. we’ve heard many of them closing,” he said.

“We want to prevent big clusters and the spread of this virus.”

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Recently, researchers also talked about the option of saliva testing, making it easier to spot COVID-19.

Kwapisz says this would be a great (and cheaper) option instead of a nasal test.

“It’s no surprise we’re trying to be inventive and develop a less invasive test,” he said. “You don’t need health-care workers to administrate the test.”

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Kwapisz says even with the recent uptick in cases in some provinces, Canadians generally shouldn’t be too concerned about a possible “second wave” in the fall.

“Testing in these two provinces has been robust and it hasn’t come as a shock now that more places are opening up … the numbers are going up.”

What about vaccine safety? For more COVID-19 questions, watch the full clip with Kwapisz above.