Ontario reported another 179 COVID-19 cases in its public schools on Wednesday, the greatest number of cases reported in a single day since the school year began.

Of the new cases, 153 involved students, 19 involved education workers and seven others involved unknown individuals.

On this day last week, the Ministry of Education reported 109 new cases.

There are now 1,121 known active cases involving school students and staff across the province, representing approximately 19 per cent of all known active cases across all age groups in Ontario.

Of the 179 new cases reported today, 88 involved schools in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.

There are now 484 known active cases of COVID-19 among staff and students in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.

Across the province, the Ministry of Education says 660 of its 4,844 publicly funded schools have at least one active case.

One school in Windsor is closed.

Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CP24 it is entirely unsurprising to him that there are this many active COVID-19 cases in schools at this point in the year.

“While 1,000 is still high, and still not a good number, no one would ever say ‘oh, it’s nothing’ and sweep it under the rug, 1,000 out of two million is a tiny, tiny, tiny number,” he said, referring to the number of school aged children across Ontario.

“We still have a lot of work to do to, we still have to watch that the trend doesn’t rise as time elapses, but still, if you take a snapshot in time, it really is not a surprising number, given how much COVID we’re seeing in the community.”

Testing requirements tied to school attendance have sent COVID-19 test volumes climbing in the province up to 39,000 in the past 24 hours.

Daily testing volumes hovered in the low-20,000s in August.

Contact tracing investigations in the GTA are leading to a growing number of classes and cohorts heading home to self isolate.

In the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, there are now 78 classrooms self isolating.

In the Peel District School Board, 56 classrooms are closed, while in the York Catholic District School Board, 41 classes are closed.

Ontario’s latest case and contact management guidance says fully vaccinated students and staff do not need to stay home from school if they are not showing symptoms of COVID-19.