Six more school closures due to COVID outbreaks
The announced shutdown of six more schools brings the number of school closures due to COVID-19 outbreaks in the Toronto District School Board to nine. Including other boards in Toronto, 13 schools are now closed across the city.
The TDSB announced on Sunday that the six schools would close immediately and remain closed to classes until January.
Remote learning would continue during the last week of school scheduled for this semester before the holidays, while Toronto Public Health continues to investigate the cases at the schools. The next semester is scheduled to begin Jan. 4.
The latest closures have been prompted by rising numbers of cases of coronavirus among students and staff at the schools, as shown by TDSB advisories (figures updated Dec. 15):
- City Adult Learning Centre, 1 Danforth Ave. in Riverdale (with seven active cases, 10 resolved cases)
- David Lewis Public School, 130 Fundy Bay Blvd. in Scarborough (eight active, one resolved)
- Grenoble Public School, 9 Grenoble Dr. in Flemingdon Park (eight active)
- Humewood Community School, 15 Cherrywood Ave. in Humewood-Cedarvale (two active, four resolved)
- Oakridge Junior Public School, 110 Byng Ave. in Scarborough (two active)
- R.H. McGregor Elementary School, 555 Mortimer Ave. in Old East York (seven active)
Toronto’s chief medical officer Dr. Eileen de Villa told the daily city hall briefing today that, across all Toronto school boards, 13 of 1,200 schools are closed, with outbreaks averaging about five cases per school.
“We have acted to close schools where it was needed and worked to ensure the hundreds of schools still able to be open are open safely,” she said. “But … while we support schools open, it isn’t at any cost.”
Infectious communities
The six schools closed this week join three TDSB schools that had been previously shut down and remain closed: Thorncliffe Park Public School in Thorncliffe Park (currently showing 20 active cases, 30 resolved cases), Fraser Mustard Early Learning Centre in Thorncliffe Park (five active, five resolved), and Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Flemingdon Park (23 active, eight resolved).
COVID-19 in schools reflects the rise in infections in their communities, de Villa said.
“We continue to find that when a student has COVID-19, most often the infection happened outside of school, not at it.”
