Students in four more regions of the province, including London and Ottawa, will be permitted to return to in-person learning starting Monday.

In a news release issued Thursday, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce confirmed that students at schools in four more public health units, including Ottawa, Eastern Ontario, Middlesex-London, and the Southwestern Public Health Unit, have now been given the green light to return to the classroom.

"On the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, with the support of the local Medical Officers of Health, and with the introduction of additional layers of protection, 280,000 students in four public health regions will return to class on Monday, February 1,” Lecce said in a written statement released Wednesday.

There are now 520,000 students in the province who are allowed to return to in-person learning.

The province previously said that for the five regions with the highest transmission of COVID-19, including Windsor-Essex, Peel Region, York Region, Toronto and Hamilton, in-person learning will not resume until at least Feb. 10.

All schools in northern Ontario were permitted to reopen on Jan. 11 due to lower rates of case growth. Last week, the province announced that schools in seven more public health units could reopen on Jan. 25, including Grey Bruce, Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge, Hastings and Prince Edward Counties, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington, Leeds, Grenville and Lanark, Peterborough, as well as the Renfrew County and District Public Health Unit.

Lecce said enhanced public health measures are now in place for students returning to in-person learning, including stricter masking protocols for students in grades one to three, increased access to targeted asymptomatic testing, and stronger screening measures.

In the news release, the province noted that local public health units "continue to have the authority to close schools" as they see fit and parents can also choose to continue with remote learning rather than sending their children back to the classroom.

Ontario NDP education critic Marit Stiles said the province's additional safety measures do not go far enough, calling the resumption of in-class learning "a recipe for more illness."

"Minister Lecce announcing a resumption of in-person classes at a number of Ontario school boards without announcing vital safety measures of a 15-student cap on class sizes, better and safer ventilation in classrooms, a comprehensive asymptomatic testing strategy for students and paid sick day for all workers just doesn't cut it," Stiles said in a statement released Thursday. 

"Many parents and students are eager to see a return to in-person learning, but without proper safety measures from Doug Ford, we're at risk of more illness and future school closures."