The Ontario Liberals leader called on the Ford government to distribute more of its COVID-19 testing capacity to schools and school-age children on Tuesday, as infection rates among children and schools rise.
Steven Del Duca said the government should use all available tools to help keep the virus out of schools, which on Monday were linked to more than half of all cases in the province.
“I urge Doug Ford to do the right thing and meaningfully roll out the rapid tests that are available here in Ontario,” he said, noting that they should be available in publicly funded education, but especially in schools and neighborhoods. . deal with the biggest risk.
Ontario schools have been closed longer than those in any other province since the pandemic first disrupted life in March 2020, even from April to September this year.
1,564 cases have been reported in Ontario schools in the last two weeks, shows provincial data, including 280 new cases (mostly among students) reported from 2:00 p.m. on Friday to 2:00 p.m. on Monday, while a total of 466 daily cases were reported on Monday.
Still, the overall number of cases in Ontario is well below worst case scenarios presented by epidemiologists and other scientific and public health experts before back-to-school, when the science board that advises the government said there could be 9,000 cases a day by now.
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Rates are also much lower than in provinces like Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, which have relaxed public health measures more drastically than in Ontario.
Alberta is currently dealing with around 40 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Canada, with more than 5,000 cases reported over the weekend, despite having only about 12 percent of its population.
Responding to Del Duca’s call, a spokesman for Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government has a “singular goal of minimizing disruption and maximizing safety and learning in Ontario schools.”
“Ontario has a cautious reopening plan with improved cleaning, strict overhaul, implementation of take-home testing and significant ventilation improvements in all Ontario schools,” Caitlin Clark said in an email.
The province’s medical director of health said last week that regular testing of Ontario’s two million school-age children would not be practical, but that specific testing may be warranted.
Ontario liberals say faster tests are required in schools, as the most recent data shows that more than half of the province’s new # COVID19 cases were linked to schools. #onted #onpoli
Meanwhile, parents and other stakeholders have been looking for their own rapid test supplies in some schools in the province. including one at the east end of Toronto, which receives kits StaySafe Initiative in Kitchener-Waterloo which initially offered them free to small and medium-sized businesses.
The rate of COVID-19 infection among Toronto children ages four to 11, who are not yet eligible for vaccination, is the highest of any age demographic, the city’s chief medical officer for health said on Monday. a public health meeting. CTV reported, to 64 cases per 100,000.
Dr. Eileen de Villa said that most of those infections are still linked to domestic transmission and not to classroom outbreaks.
Almost three-quarters of Ontario youth ages 12 to 17 have been vaccinated.
Morgan Sharp / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada National Observer
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on September 29 to clarify that the school case count spans as of Friday afternoon.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com