ontario schools will be shuttered again if covid-19 races through the education system, premier doug ford says.
rising numbers of schools report cases among students, teachers and staff.
ford said he believes the plan his government and school boards put in place is working, but he’s prepared to consider another full lockdown like the one that sent two million students home in march.
“we’ll make that decision is if we see this escalate any further,” ford said wednesday.
“i was the first premier in the entire country to shut the schools down before and i won’t hesitate to shut them down again if we see this continue throughout all the schools.”
ontario’s daily covid-19 cases dropped to 335 wednesday, well below the previous day’s tally of 478 but still higher than the numbers seen just two weeks ago.
ontario health minister christine elliott confirmed 69% of cases were in people under 40 years of age.
toronto reported 102 new cases, peel 79 and ottawa 65.
the ministry of education reported 180 covid-19 cases in 153 schools, up from 141 cases in 116 schools the previous day.
in the ontario legislature, ndp mpp ian arthur called on the ford government to immediately cap all elementary and secondary class sizes at 15 students.