We’ll get full details of Premier Doug Ford’s mandatory closure of non-essential services due to the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday but, even if this includes malls, the guidance applies to any gathering of teenagers.

Don’t let them hang out, health-care experts say.

“Teens are not great at observing social distancing at all,” says Craig Janes, director of University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health.

Janes, who did a post-doctoral fellowship in spatial epidemiology, offers an anecdote from last week when his wife helped a friend’s daughter move out of her residence at the University of Toronto. It was part of a mass exodus with school housing shuttering due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These were educated college students and what are they doing? They’re all hugging one another and so forth. She was just amazed that, despite all the messaging, there is this sense of invincibility at that age that is just difficult to overcome.”

That attitude was evident in stories coming out of Florida last week as rowdy crowds of college students partied together during spring break.

“If I get corona, I get corona,” one reveller said in a video from Miami that was widely circulated on social media. “At the end of the day, I’m not going to let it stop me from partying… Whatever happens, happens.”

Florida officials, ultimately, began closing the state’s beaches.

Toronto pediatrician Dr. Dina Kulik, who works as an emergency medicine physician at the Hospital for Sick Children, says it is that sense of being invulnerable, combined with decision-making capabilities that aren’t fully formed, that leaves no wiggle room for teens in this.

“They typically feel immune and they often don’t feel that the big, bad stuff in the world will affect them, so they take more chances and more risks,” says Kulik.

“Your kid, teen, baby with a parent — anyone — should not be interacting with anyone other than someone who lives in your house right now. If we don’t practise social distancing and really, truly not interact with other people outside of our family, we will have an exponential spread of COVID like we’ve seen around the world, like in Italy.”

“Your kids should not be seeing their friends other than electronically by FaceTime or otherwise. If we keep mingling, we’re going to keep spreading this.”

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet Monday afternoon: “To the people who think they’re invincible: You’re not. So go home and stay home. You’re not just putting yourself at risk, you’re putting others at risk, too — nurses and doctors, grocery store workers, your grandparents and so many others.”

Many teens view COVID-19 as being a disease of the elderly. While approximately 30 per cent of cases in Canada are people age 60 and over, as of Sunday morning, 16 per cent of Canadian cases are of people 29 or younger, according to government data. Five per cent of the cases are Canadians 19 or younger.

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A young person who has COVID-19 may have mild symptoms, but they can still pass it on to family and friends who may be more vulnerable.

Toronto Public Health is also encouraging teens and others to connect online or by phone. The prevailing message is to stay home to help stop the spread of COVID-19.