The number of active COVID-19 cases associated with Ontario’s public school system is now the lowest it has been in nearly three weeks but there are still six schools that are shuttered due to outbreaks and hundreds of individual classrooms that are self-isolating as a precaution.
The Ministry of Education says that there were another 117 new cases confirmed over a 24-hour period ending on Friday afternoon. That is down from 146 cases over the same time period last week and the 173 cases reported for the same time period two weeks ago.
The number of active cases associated with Ontario’s public schools is now down to 1,234. That number had went as high as 1,637 as of last Monday but has been trending down in recent days and is now the lowest it has been since Sept. 23.
However, Ontario’s public schools continue to see higher numbers of COVID-19 infections than they were seeing at this point in the 2020/2021 school year when the second wave of the pandemic was just beginning.
Back then it took until November 11 for the total number of lab-confirmed infections to exceed 3,000 but with the latest data Ontario schools have now reported a total of 3,088 lab-confirmed infections, including 2,713 among students. .
The latest cases also come in the wake of Toronto Public Health ordering the closure of Silverthorn Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke due to a COVID-19 outbreak that has grown to include 11 student cases.
It is the first Toronto school that has been ordered to close due to a COVID-19 outbreak so far this year.
“This is a first in Toronto but I will note that Toronto Public Health, the chief medical officer of health, all of whom have have said the cautious preventative layers of protection put in place in our schools have been effective at reducing spread reducing outbreaks and keeping kids safe,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce insisted during a press conference on Tuesday morning. “Three out of four schools in this province amid the Delta-driven fourth wave have no active cases at all but we are taking nothing for granted.”
There are currently 657 Ontario schools with at least one active case of COVID-19 but that number is down from a high of 819 schools at one point last week.
The number of active cases associated with the school system is also beginning to decline as a share of Ontario’s overall case count.
As of today, more than 28 per cent of Ontario’s active cases are associated with the public school system. But this time last week schools accounted for an entire third of Ontario’s active cases.
Of course, the impact on learning cannot be judged entirely through case counts.
According to a review of the data publicly posted by the boards on Tuesday, there are currently at least 230 individual cohorts self isolating in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area following a positive case in the classroom.
On Tuesday dozens of parents concerned about class sizes within the Toronto Catholic District School Board also marched outside Queen’s Park to draw attention to classroom reorganizations that they say are putting kids at risk.
“They are stuffing kids into classrooms to pre-pandemic levels. So there are classes going up to 31 kids a class where the space is tiny. The desks are so close together you can’t walk straight down between the desks; you have to turn sideways,” parent Guy Renzetti told CTV News Toronto. “We are in the middle of a fourth wave and want to keep our kids safe and stuffing 31 kids into a class that is not safe to properly handle that is a sure way to not keep them safe.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiiwFodHRwczovL3d3dy5jcDI0LmNvbS9uZXdzL251bWJlci1vZi1hY3RpdmUtY292aWQtY2FzZXMtYXNzb2NpYXRlZC13aXRoLW9udGFyaW8tc2Nob29scy1yZWFjaGVzLWxvd2VzdC1wb2ludC1pbi1uZWFybHktdGhyZWUtd2Vla3MtMS41NjE5ODYz0gEA?oc=5
2021-10-12 15:06:00Z
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