Ontario confirms 41 coronavirus cases in its schools

Sep 16 2020, 3:24 pm

The Government of Ontario has confirmed a total of 41 COVID-19 cases in schools across the province, after launching its tracking website less than a week ago.

As of September 16, of the 41 cases, 15 are students, 18 are staff, and eight cases are not identified.

So far, the cases have been detected in 35 schools out of 4,828 in the province.

Government of Ontario

And six staff at the Toronto District School Board have also been confirmed, but are missing an additional case detected at the secondary School of Experiential Education.

Two more  of the cases are in high schools — Earl Haig Secondary School, York Mills Collegiate Institute.

The other four include Bloordale Middle School, Brookhaven Public School, Charles G. Fraser Junior Public School, and Don Mills Middle School.

The province states that 15 of the cases come from schools in Ottawa.

And five cases come from Mississauga schools, with three from Brampton, two from Oakville, and one from Markham.

Premier Doug Ford is set to make an announcement on Wednesday afternoon with the Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce.

The Ontario back-to-school plan has been criticized for not physically distancing students in classrooms, which could cause virus spread.

A preliminary study by researchers and clinicians from The Hospital for Sick Children — SickKids — shows that in order to have proper physical distancing, classes cannot be bigger than 15 to 20 students.

Currently, most classes have over 20 students.

Clarrie FeinsteinClarrie Feinstein

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