Toronto Public Health closes first school of the year due to a COVID-19 outbreak

Toronto Public Health has closed a Toronto high school due to a COVID-19 outbreak. It is the first school in Toronto to be dismissed this school year.

All in-person classes and activities are cancelled at Silverthorn Collegiate Institute while Toronto Public Health investigates the COVID-19 cases to determine when school can resume.

You might also like:
• Teens playing indoor sports in Toronto this fall must be fully vaccinated
• Ontario to deploy rapid COVID-19 tests for unvaccinated students
• Ontario is publicly sharing school-related COVID-19 cases again

“TPH continues to investigate this COVID-19 outbreak, including following up with close contacts, providing guidance, and recommending whole-school testing,” Toronto Public Health said in a press release.

Toronto Public Health continues to support schools to reduce #COVID19 spread and issues first whole-school dismissal.

News release: https://t.co/JRHBWaJJQT pic.twitter.com/g9jt9IXTGE

— City of Toronto (@cityoftoronto) October 11, 2021

Toronto District School Board tweeted that all students will be moving to remote learning while the Toronto Public Health investigation unfolds. The school could be closed for more than 10 days.

On the advice of @TOPublicHealth, all students at Silverthorn CI are being dismissed effective tomorrow, Tuesday, October 12 to allow TPH additional time to investigate COVID cases at the school. All students will be moving to remote learning during this time. https://t.co/Kva8b07Bks

— Toronto District School Board (@tdsb) October 11, 2021

As of October 8, there were 21 active school outbreaks and 30 active investigations in 122 school settings, TPH said in the press release. Also as of October 8, there are nine schools across the province that have closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Toronto Public Health declares an outbreak in a school setting “if there are two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases linked within school settings in 14 days.”

According to Ontario’s COVID-19 portal, Silverthorn Collegiate Institute had three active COVID-19 cases as of Friday. Toronto District School Board spokesperson Ryan Bird told the Toronto Star that there were 11 active cases as of Monday, but four of those would be considered “resolved” by Tuesday. A COVID-19 case is deemed resolved after 14 days.

Update on #COVID19 in TO child care & school settings: as of Oct. 8 at 2:30 p.m. there are:
🔎30 active investigations in child care & 122 in schools
🏫0 site dismissals
🧪3 confirmed outbreaks in child care & 19 in schools
➡More info on #COVID19 in TO: https://t.co/SkOS47Xggr pic.twitter.com/wX1yz9ByoD

— Toronto Public Health (@TOPublicHealth) October 9, 2021