Extracurricular activities are not dead in Toronto, it is a “phased in of activities,” says Dr. Eileen de Villa, director of public health.

The hiatus in extracurricular activities in Toronto is to give its four big school boards time to deal with the reopening after months of closings and to overcome the usual early-year class changes that, once resolved, will allow for better tracking. of contacts amid the most contagious Delta Variant of COVID-19, says the city’s medical health official.

In an interview with The Star, and after an outcry from students, parents, coaches, and even education directors about the last-minute decision to reject extracurricular sports and clubs in September, Dr. Eileen de Villa characterized the move as more of a “gradual introduction of activities” when dealing with the country’s top school councils.

“We are focusing first and foremost on all the activities that begin with the beginning of school … organizing groups of classes and cohorts … there is a bit of movement that happens there and a fix that needs to happen,” he said.

And “because we are in the middle of a pandemic, they are also reintroducing some routines around infection prevention and control to ensure the health and safety of everyone in the school setting,” he added.

“As an integral part of that process, we wanted to help our school board partners ensure that schools have these well-established and monitored routines in place, and then begin to introduce some other activities, especially as cohorts or class groupings increase and more established because we know that with Delta, there are going to be cases. “

All four Toronto councils (Public, Catholic, French Public, and French Catholic) alerted families to the change before school started, saying they were delaying all after-school sports and clubs at the urging of public health during at least the first month.

That led to some confusion and frustration as the province’s medical director of health gave the green light to high-contact indoor sports such as hockey and basketball. Education Minister Stephen Lecce has said any delay in sports and clubs should be temporary.

Meanwhile, neighboring boards in Peel, York, Durham and Halton are starting extracurricular activities right away, even though Peel and York currently report more weekly cases per 100,000 than Toronto. Peel Public Health has said that children need sports and clubs for their mental health and well-being after so long learning at home, and also raised equity issues given that children can pay and play in the community.

De Villa said he cannot discuss the circumstances of the other health units but, given the size of the local boards, the Toronto District School Board is the largest in the country and is in the top five in North America. “Our context is a bit different even though they are next door.”

He said the late notice of the change followed a new model from the province’s scientific table and spoke of the need for fewer interactions to help keep COVID-19 under control, something repeated by Dr. Theresa Tam, director. Public Health Department of Canada.

De Villa also said public health wants to make sure schools don’t have to go back to online learning again due to the increase in COVID-19 cases. “We really want to maintain that health and safety in order to keep learning in person, knowing how important it is,” he said.

As such, “we are really committed to what I would call a slow and cautious, but still very strong, commitment to reintroduce all activities. We want our children to enjoy as many activities as they can at school recognizing, in the context of a pandemic, that a cautious approach is warranted at this time. “

When asked why children are still allowed to play sports in the community, he said it is easier to identify cases and trace contacts in those situations.

Toronto’s approach, he added, is “appropriate to the circumstances that we are seeing before us. We have to look at our context. “

And, he added, “We are absolutely committed to working with our school board partners to reintroduce activities gradually and in a way that allows them to ensure that they can ensure the health and safety of all members of the community. . “

De Villa did not give a date on when extracurricular activities could resume, only saying “we are as eager as everyone else to see our children enjoy a wide range of activities in the healthiest and safest way we can.”

However, it is possible that outdoor sports could be resumed first and it is up to the province to decide whether children should be vaccinated to participate in sports, as the Quebec government has mandated.

Brendan Browne, director of education for the Toronto Catholic board, has said that if extracurricular activities can be resumed soon, early fall sports like soccer, cross country or field hockey can be saved.

“We really see this as a temporary thing, so we have every hope that we have a full fall season, even if the season starts a little later,” Browne told the Star, adding that the extracurricular theme will be on the ” top of the agenda ”at the next meeting between directors of education and public health on Monday.

Windsor and Ottawa Public Health has also suspended extracurricular activities for now.

Coaches say such a move puts young athletes at a great disadvantage.

In Toronto, 84 percent of people ages 12 to 17 have received at least one COVID injection and 75 percent have received two.