Early school closures possible for Ontario, education minister says

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Tuesday in a statement:

"I am seriously looking at solutions that may include some period outside of class that allows to protect the gains we made in this province going into the second year. And we will be able to report more substantively on that soon, to give parents notice that understandably they deserve."

"The announcement we will unveil will be comprehensive and include a variety of elements, one of which can include something like an extended closure and online learning experience."

The definitive announcement is expected to come in a week or two, despite Lecce having stated a week previously that they were not considering early closures of schools at the time.

According to CP24, most of Ontario's public school system is operating, albeit with strict protocols such as mask-wearing and social distancing, pursuant to a $450 million provincial investment in things such as physical barriers to be used at students' desks, hire extra staff (especially public health nurses) and reduce class size. The Canadian federal government also helped out to the tune of some $381 million.

Ontario has seen a 15-fold increase in daily new coronavirus cases since the middle of September, when public schools re-opened, going from around 100 on average to more than 1500.

Ontario's public schools have seen 3500 new transmissions of the virus since that time, with at least one case in close to 14% of all public schools.