In-person learning will resume at schools in most of Ontario next week but students in Toronto, Peel and York regions will have to wait until Feb. 16 for their return to the classroom.

The Ford government has announced that schools will reopen in an additional 13 public health units as of Monday, including Durham and Halton regions.

But it says that schools will remain remote-only in Toronto, Peel and York for another week and will instead reopen after the Family Day long weekend on Feb. 16.

“We are going to get this right, we are going to safely reopen our schools we are going to protect our students and staff and with your continued support and vigilance we are going to keep community transmission low and as a result we are going to keep our schools open,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce said during a press conference at Queen’s Park on Wednesday afternoon. 

Students in northern Ontario were given the green light to return to in-person instruction on Jan. 11 and schools in 11 public health units in southern regions of the province have since been permitted to reopen as well, including London-Middlesex and Ottawa, which saw in-person learning resume on Monday.

The province previously said that students in regions with the highest levels of COVID-19 transmission, including Toronto, Peel Region, York Region, Windsor-Essex, and Hamilton, will be learning from home until at least Feb. 10.

On Monday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said it was his hope that all students, including those in the COVID-19 hot spots, could return to in-person learning next week.

“That’s the goal we are striving for but I want to make sure that is done in full consultation with medical officers so that they are agreeing that yes we are ready for it, we can handle that,” he said.

Community transmission of the novel coronavirus appears to have slowed over the past three weeks, with the rolling seven-day average of new infections dropping to about 1,800 this week, down from 2,850 on Jan. 20.

Active infections and the provincewide positivity rate have also dropped in recent weeks, with hospitalizations and intensive care admissions remaining relatively stable.

Epidemiologist Dr. Isaac Bogoch, one of the members of the province’s COVID-19 vaccine task force, said while the declining numbers are encouraging, the province is not “out of the woods yet.”

“You can’t digest 1,800 new cases per day and expect your health care system to function smoothly. While it is excellent to see us headed in the right direction, we are actually pretty far from where we need to be,” Bogoch told CP24 on Wednesday morning.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t open up schools, it just means… if you do open up you have to open safely.”

Bogoch said having adequate testing and tracing capacity will be very important to prevent transmission within schools.

“Have you integrated safety measures into the schools so you can identify cases and prevent transmission… should there be smaller class sizes, better ventilation,” he said. “What is being done to deal with the upstream drivers of infection and what is being done to ensure that we can continue along with this downward trajectory.”

The province said enhanced safety measures have been introduced, including stricter masking protocols for students in grades one to three and increased access to targeted asymptomatic testing.

The Ford government said using both PCR tests and rapid antigen tests, the province will eventually be able to process 50,000 tests per week as part of its asymptomatic testing program in schools. Local public health units across Ontario will have access to the testing and will be able decide what specific areas and schools should be targeted for asymptomatic testing.

At a news conference earlier this week, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa would not say if she supports reopening schools in the city next week.

“As soon as we can get our children back to school in a safe manner… that’s what we are looking for. We are having active conversations about what enhancements might be put forward to help promote an even safer environment,” she said.

“This is a conversation that is ongoing and we are very, very keen to work with our provincial counterparts.”

Dr. Lawrence Loh, the medical officer of health for Peel Region, said Wednesday that lower levels of transmission in the community could soon signal a return to in-person learning in the region but he seemed to suggest that a little more time was needed.

“We are now getting to levels of transmission in the community where I am hopeful that in the next couple weeks we will be able to see that the benefits of having children in school will outweigh the risk of potential transmission provided additional measures are taken,” he said.

“These include things such as single symptom screening, which we put in place in December, and certainly the broader testing. We are getting to levels where ultimately out of everything that could be lifted in the community, getting our children back in school is certainly a priority.”

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