COVID-19 contact tracing underway at 23 Toronto schools

East York Collegiate Institute (Google Street View)

One week after students went back to in-person classes in Toronto, public health staff are already contact tracing at 23 schools for potential COVID-19 exposures.

Toronto Public Health issued a news release Monday where it named the 23 schools where COVID-19 investigations are currently underway.

These are the schools:

Bellmere Junior Public School
Central Montessori School – Maplehurst Campus
Cresthaven Public School
Dundas Junior Public School
East York Collegiate Institute
École élémentaire catholique Saint-Michel
Elia Middle School
Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy
Humber Valley Village Junior Middle School
Milne Valley Middle School
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School
Pauline Johnson Junior Public School
Riverdale Collegiate Institute
Ryerson Community School
Senator O’Connor College School
Sir John A Macdonald Collegiate Institute
St. André Catholic School
St. Brigid Catholic School
The York School
Topcliff Public School
West Hill Collegiate Institute
William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute
Willowdale Middle School

“It is not unexpected to have cases related to the school setting, even during the first week of school, as cases in school settings often reflect what is happening in the broader community,” TPH said.

According to the TDSB, which updated its COVID-19 information on Tuesday, there have also been COVID-19 cases identified at 12 additional schools:

Malvern Collegiate Institute
Alvin Curling Public School
Blake Street Junior Public School
Don Mills Middle School
Downsview Secondary School
Earl Haig Secondary School
Jarvis Collegiate Institute
John Polyani Collegiate Institute
Rose Avenue Junior Public School
Sir Adam Beck Junior School
The Waterfront School
Weston Memorial Junior Public School

There are several COVID-19 mitigation measures in place at Toronto schools, including mandatory masking indoors and cohorts of students. In addition, all staff at public schools must be fully immunized.

See also:

The provincial government’s page of school COVID-19 cases from last year is was inactive for the first week of school, but the Ministry of Education began sharing province-wide school COVID-19 information again on Tuesday.

Since August 2, there have been 328 related COVID-19 cases in both students and staff reported to the ministry.

Government of Ontario

Health officials last year have said that community transmissions rates usually drive school COVID-19 exposures. Last year, 87% of children who got COVID-19 caught the virus outside of school, according to the Ministry of Education. School was the source of infection in only 7% of cases.