TORONTO (AP) – All schools in Canada’s most populous province will be closed and go to online education, due to a record number of coronavirus infections fueled by more contagious variants, Ontario’s premier announced Monday.
Prime Minister Doug Ford said his government was only launching online after the April break this week.
Schools in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, have been closed since last Wednesday. Now it will be province-wide. Toronto and the neighboring Peel region made the decision last week after the province refused to act.
Ontario has seen more than 4,000 new infections a day in recent days, including 4,401 on Monday, and its intensive care numbers have been recorded.
The spring break began on Monday after the province postponed it in March to discourage travel during the pandemic.
“Bringing our kids back to a community setting in schools after a week of community vacation is a risk I will not take,” Ford said.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government would rely on the advice of Ontario’s chief medical officer to determine when schools will return to class.
On Sunday, Lecce said schools will reopen for classroom teaching next week. The Liberal leader of the opposition, Steven Del Ducca, said Lecce should be fired.
Ford has been criticized by health officials for failing to control infections after months of warnings.
‘I can not emphasize it enough. We are currently at a critical point. “Many of the health indicators still outweigh the worse case,” Ford said. “I’m very worried about the new variants.”
Vaccinations have increased in Canada over the past few weeks and all adults who want a vaccine are expected to receive at least one dose by July. Canada was left behind in vaccinations because, like many other countries, it did not have the capacity to produce vaccines and had to rely on the global supply chain. While hope is on the way with more than 45 million doses expected to be available to the country of 38 million people by July, cases in Canada are on the rise.
The Ontario Hospital Association said nearly all hospitals in the greater Toronto area would close their pediatric units to help increase COVID-19 cases.
Toronto’s medical chief of health said the city could see 2,500 new daily COVID-19 cases by the end of April, even with a stay-at-home order.
“When the hospital for sick children provides ICU care for adults, you know that you are living in one of the worst periods of the pandemic,” said Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer, said.
Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief of public health, said there were more than 33,000 confirmed cases of infectious variants in Canada. Most still involve the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK. But Tam said the number of cases of the P.1 variant, first associated with Brazil, was a ‘worrying increase’, which is particularly worrying because it could reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.
The Pacific Coast Province, British Columbia, on Monday began vaccinating all adults in the Whistler ski area, which was severely affected with at least 197 cases of the P.1 variant.