Ontario's education minister says the Ford government plans to roll out asymptomatic COVID-19 testing at schools across the province, expanding on a pilot project targeting schools in areas with the highest rates of COVID-19 infection.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce made the comments at a news conference at Queen's Park on Friday morning, one day after the government announced that all schools in southern Ontario would remain closed until Jan. 25.

"We see wisdom in expanding it and our province will,” Lecce said of asymptomatic testing in schools. “We will do so for the day schools reopen.”

In late November, the province adjusted its COVID-19 testing guidance for school staff and students in Toronto, York Region, Peel Region and Ottawa to allow voluntary asymptomatic testing.

The testing pilot, which was in place for four weeks, was implemented to better track how the virus is spreading in and around schools.

Lecce said surveillance testing in schools will now be available provincewide.

"All schools and all public health units will be eligible (and) have the capacity and the testing kits required to do that type of surveillance testing, meaning we are going well beyond the four highest risk regions where it exists today," he said Friday.

"We are going to provincialize that access point, which we think will help."

Lecce added that the government will provide schools with another $380 million in funding for things like HVAC and ventilation system improvements, additional personal protective equipment, and hiring more janitorial staff.

All elementary schools in the province were set to reopen on Jan. 11 but the Ford government announced Thursday that due to high rates of community transmission of COVID-19 and surging test positivity rates among school-aged children, elementary students in southern Ontario will have to wait until at least Jan. 25 before in-person learning resumes.

Secondary schools in southern Ontario will also remain closed until at least Jan. 25.

Both elementary and secondary schools will be permitted to reopen in northern Ontario on Monday due to low levels of COVID-19 transmission in those areas.

In southern parts of the province, teachers and students will continue with virtual learning at home.

"Our commitment is to get them back as soon as it is safe," Lecce said at Friday’s news conference.

Ontario logged a record 4,249 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, though the province noted that 450 of those were cases that should have been reported on previous days.

"Today's numbers, to be frank, are scary," Ontario's Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said on Friday.

On Thursday, a record 89 more virus-related deaths were reported in the province, surpassing the previous record of 86 logged in April during the first wave of the pandemic.

"I think we do have to consider more serious measures, perhaps similar to what happened in the spring," Yaffe said.