Ontario’s top public health officials says that he is “leery” about students returning to the classroom in January “in the midst of a maelstrom” when it comes to COVID-19 cases in the community.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams made the comment during a briefing on Thursday afternoon, one day after the Ministry of Education sent a memo to all school boards in the province asking them to be prepared to switch to remote learning if it is deemed necessary.
“I think we can have schools opening safely, we have done it before. But I would just be leery to have them open up in the midst of a maelstrom of a rapid sweep up of cases in the community. They (schools) do reflect what is happening in the community.”
Education staff at the TDSB released an open letter earlier this month calling for in-person learning to be suspended for two weeks following the holiday break in order to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce has resisted that idea so far. In a statement released on Dec. 9 he said that experts have “made clear that cases are overwhelmingly not being transmitted within our schools” and that the “the risk remains from our community.”
But in recent days the number of staff and student cases has surged, so much so that Toronto Public Health has now ordered the closure of 15 different schools until Jan. 4.
The York Catholic District School Board has also switched its secondary schools to remote-only learning for the final three days of instruction before the holiday break.
Speaking with reporters during an unrelated press conference earlier on Thursday, Health Minister Christine Elliott said her government has always prioritized keeping schools open “because it is really important for students to learn and for their physical and mental health.”
But she said that with the number of cases “rising tremendously,” all options will be on the table to curb transmission “including schools.”
The TDSB has also spoken of the need to prepare for the possibility of a switch to remote learning in the New Year, though spokesperson Ryan Bird told CP24 on Thursday that the board has “received no indication” that it will be asked to do that at this point.
“The simple side of it is that if kids have indoor shoes, or if there is food still at schools, or if there is clothes you might need over the holidays or beyond we want you to bring that home,” he said. “The access to technology piece, we just want to make sure that everyone does have access to technology. The close to 60,000 devices that we shared last school year when the pandemic started, a large majority of those are still out in the system. So tens of thousands of students already have a device but we want to make sure that if anyone else needs one as a result of this potential closure, that they notify the school.”
Bird said that the TDSB has been “asking our schools and our classes to be prepared to flip over to remote learning” since the beginning of the year in case they “decide to flip the entire system over to remote learning.”
There have been more than 7,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 associated with Ontario schools since the beginning of September.
Nearly 20 per cent of schools had at least one active case as of Thursday.
“Parents, kids and staff in our schools deserve a plan that is a lot more sophisticated than simply open or closed,” the NDP’s education critic, Marit Stiles, told reporters at Queen’s Park on Thursday. “There is months and months left of this pandemic and we need a strategy in place that will protect kids until this pandemic nightmare is over.”
