Ontario reported 128 new COVID-19 cases tied to public schools on Wednesday, the highest single-day tally recorded in more than one month.
The Ministry of Education says 110 of the cases were detected in students and 16 involved staff, while the affiliation of two other cases were not disclosed.
It’s the highest single-day increase reported in Ontario schools since Oct. 6 when 173 new cases were reported.
Five-hundred and fifty eight of the province’s 4,844 publicly funded schools now have at least one active case of COVID-19 and four are closed, including three schools in the GTA: Nativity of Our Lord Catholic School in Etobicoke, EEC René-Lamoureux in Mississauga and Our Lady of Fatima CES in Vaughan.
There are now 1,140 known active cases of COVID-19 in the province tied to schools, representing 24 per cent of the province’s total burden of infection on Wednesday.
Since the start of Sept. 2021, there have been 5,992 confirmed cases of COVID-19 involving people attending public schools.
By this point during the 2020 school year, Ontario had detected 3,591 COVID-19 cases in schools.
In the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area, school boards reported 637 active cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, up nine from the previous day and 62 from one week prior.
There are at least 125 class cohorts isolating at home due to exposures, up 13 from one day prior and 35 from one week ago.
Health Canada has now received submissions to authorize both the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for use in 5-11 year-olds.
Ontario Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kieran Moore told an Ottawa news radio station he anticipates the first shots could be administered to children by the end of November.
