A Mississauga French school has been ordered to close due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
École Élémentaire Catholique René-Lamoureux near Rathburn Road and Central Parkway has been closed for in-person learning since Monday and is not expected to reopen until next week.
The closure comes on the heels of students at Scarborough’s Precious Blood Catholic School being permitted to return to the classroom on Tuesday morning. The school had previously been ordered to close on Nov. 9.
“We're happy to see that everyone was able to return to the school today,” TCDSB spokesperson Shazia Vlahos told CP24 earlier in the day. “There is an additional layer of protection that Toronto Public Health has added at the school which is rapid antigen testing. It is voluntary. There are kits available at the school and they're asking staff and students to consider taking the rapid antigen test three times a week just to make sure that no one is positive.”
There are currently at least four Ontario schools that are closed due to the spread of COVID-19, including École Élémentaire Catholique René-Lamoureux.
The closures come with Ontario’s publicly-funded school boards reporting 245 new cases of COVID-19 today, representing the highest weekend total since early October.
The latest data includes cases that were confirmed over a three-day period ending Monday afternoon.
It represents a sizeable 35 per cent increase from this time last week when only 181 new infections were reported amongst public school students and staff.
The number of active infections associated with public schools has also hit a three-week high and now stands at 1,116.
That is up more than 16 per cent from this time last week when there were 961 active cases.
Nearly half of all active cases associated with public schools are in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area – 628 cases.
That represents an increase of 60 cases from one week prior.
It should, however, be noted that the increase in cases associated with public schools is trailing slightly behind the increase in case counts in the broader community where active cases are up nearly 19 per cent week-over-week.
Toronto set to release survey results
The latest data released on Tuesday comes amid optimism that Health Canada will soon approve the COVID-19 vaccine for use in school-aged children as young as five.
Toronto Public Health is also set to release the results of a survey of some 40,000 parents tomorrow which it says will inform some of its efforts to boost vaccination rates among young children in the coming weeks and months.
“There was solid, solid support for getting the kids vaccinated but it also indicated at the same time based on those initial numbers that we have some work to do on public education and public assurance about the advisability of getting kids vaccinated but it was a good start,” Mayor John Tory said of the survey during an unrelated press conference on Tuesday. “They gave us some very practical advice which we'll share tomorrow about where the clinics can be most conveniently located for them and for their families and we are taking that all to heart.”
According to the latest data, there are now 536 schools with at least open active case of COVID-19 across Ontario, up from 488 one day prior.
In Toronto there are 13 schools with confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks after new outbreaks were declared at two schools in the city’s west end on Tuesday afternoon - Rawlinson Community School and Swansea Junior and Senior Public School.
