Ontario’s school boards are reporting nearly 200 cases of COVID-19, setting a new single-day high for the number of lab-confirmed infections linked to the public school system.

The Ministry of Education says that there were 185 new school-related cases confirmed over a 24-hour period ending on Tuesday afternoon, including 167 amongst students.

It is the highest daily count of new cases reported by Ontario’s school boards so far this year and pushes the number of active infections associated with the school system to 1,720.

That number is now up 23 per cent week-over week and has nearly doubled since this time last month when there were fewer than 1,000 active infections associated with schools.

Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 outbreaks at public schools continue to rise and are now approaching levels that were only seen at the height of the third wave of the pandemic last spring.

According to the latest data, 206 of Ontario’s nearly 5,000 schools are currently experiencing active outbreaks of COVID-19.

Of those outbreaks, 188 are located in elementary schools where students only recent became eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

In 2020 the highest number of outbreaks in public schools at any one time was 210 and that came immediately prior to officials ordering the closure of schools in April.

Of course, vaccines had only been approved for adult residents back then, leaving schools more vulnerable than they are now.

According to the latest figures provided by the province, Ontario has administered first doses to more than 109,000 children aged five to 11 since Pfizer's pediatric vaccine was approved last month. 

“Widespread vaccination will give greater certainty that our school year will continue in normal in-person and more normally, especially given that our elementary schools in Peel continue to see the bulk of school related exposures and outbreaks,” Peel Region’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lawrence Loh said during a briefing on Wednesday morning. “Last week my own child in this age group received their first dose that last week and I was overcome with emotion. In that moment I saw for my family the beginning of the end of this uncertainty that the pandemic has brought but I also felt a certain hope that other parents would soon make the right choice for their child now and also feel that same relief.”

The number of cases associated with public schools declined though most of October but has now been rising steadily for more than a month.

The latest data suggests that there are currently 763 schools with at least one active case, accounting for nearly 16 per cent of Ontario’s public schools.

There are also 13 schools that are closed due to either COVID-19 outbreaks or for operational reasons related to the pandemic.

That is down from a high of 17 school closures earlier this week but is still ahead of the pace we were on at this point in 2020 when only six schools were shuttered.

There have been 7,742 school-related cases of COVID-19 confirmed since classes resumed in September.