The Ford government has announced that in-person learning at elementary schools across Southern Ontario will remain on hold for another two weeks.
In-person instruction at the elementary level was scheduled to resume on Monday but the return of students to classrooms has now been put on hold until Jan. 25 for the 27 health units located in Southern Ontario.
The announcement comes in the wake of CTV News Toronto obtaining data which suggested that the COVID-19 positivity rate among elementary-aged children nearly tripled over the last month as cases surged across the province.
The data suggests that the positivity rate among children ages 4 to 11 rose from 5.22 per cent during the week of Nov. 29 to 15.66 per cent during the week of Dec. 27, as the number of children testing positive in a one-week period jumped from 580 to 720.
The increase was even more stark among children ages 12 and 13. The positivity rate in that group went from 5.22 percent in late November when 187 children tested positive to nearly 20 per cent by the end of December when 284 children tested positive.
The positivity rates in every other age group tracked by the province also increased over the last month in lockstep with the rising case counts but not to the same degree. In fact, in many age groups the increase in positivity rates was one-third to one-half of what was seen amongst elementary-aged children.
“Before the Christmas holiday, we saw positivity rates of three per cent (among students) and now the information I received as of late yesterday afternoon is that it has jumped 116 per cent, let me repeat that 116 per cent,” Premier Doug Ford said during a photo op on Thursday morning. “It just goes to show you the education plan that (Education) Minister (Stephen) Lecce put out there was working but as soon as we went through Christmas everyone got together and now nearly one in every five children under the age of 13 are testing positive.”
The Ford government initially ordered that all elementary schools would be remote-only from Jan. 4 to Jan. 11 and that secondary schools would be remote-only until Jan. 25 as part of a provincewide lockdown that went into effect on Boxing Day.
Government sources, however, told CTV News Toronto that the “alarming” rise in positivity rates “raised significant concerns about kids returning to school next week.”
“I will never ever, ever sacrifice our kids going back to school, the health table and the doctors are telling me not to do it,” Ford said Thursday. “No matter what decision is made I will protect our kids at all costs.”
The union representing Ontario’s elementary teachers has previously called for an extension of the online learning period while the provincial lockdown is in place, arguing that it “makes no sense” for students to return to classrooms right now.
Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa also raised concerns about the return of students to the classroom while speaking with reporters on Wednesday, noting that there are “active” conversations taking place with the province.
“We have a lot of COVID-19 activity in our community and we know that high levels of COVID-19 activity in our community give rise to greater risk so I certainly have some concerns around what this means for children in our community and have registered those concerns with provincial counterparts,” she said.
Officials in Windsor have already said that schools in that city will remain remote-only until at least Jan. 23.
There have been more than 7,000 school-related cases reported since the beginning of the academic year, though the Ontario government has not updated the data since the holiday break began on Dec. 22.
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