TORONTO (AP) – All schools in Canada’s most populous province will be shut down and moving to online learning due to a record number of coronavirus infections fueled by more contagious variants, Ontario’s prime minister announced Monday.
Prime Minister Doug Ford said his government is moving to online-only after the April hiatus this week.
Schools in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, had been closed since Wednesday. Now it will be province-wide. Toronto and the adjacent Peel region made the decision last week after the county refused to act.
Ontario is now seeing more than 4,000 new infections per day in recent days, including 4,401 on Mondays, and record numbers in intensive care.
Spring break began Monday after the county delayed it in March to discourage travel during the pandemic.
“It is a risk I will not take to return our children to a municipal setting in schools after a week off in the community,” Ford said.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government will rely on the advice of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health to determine when schools will resume for classroom learning.
On Sunday, Lecce said schools would reopen for classroom learning next week. Liberal opposition leader Steven Del Ducca said Lecce should be fired.
Ford has been criticized by health officials for failing to get infections under control after months of warnings.
‘I cannot stress this enough. We are now at a critical point. Many of the health indicators still outpace the worst-case scenario, ”said Ford. “I am very concerned about the new variants.”
Vaccinations in Canada have increased in recent weeks, and all adults who want a vaccine are expected to receive at least one dose in July. Canada has lagged behind in vaccinations because, like many other countries, it is unable to produce vaccines and is dependent on the global supply chain. While there is hope with more than 45 million doses expected to be available to the nation of 38 million people by July, cases in Canada are skyrocketing.
The Ontario Hospital Association said nearly all hospitals in the greater Toronto area would close their pediatric wards to accommodate an increase in COVID-19 cases.
Toronto’s chief medical officer of health said the city could see 2,500 new COVID-19 cases daily by the end of April, even with a stay-at-home order in place.
“When the Hospital for Sick Children provides ICU care for adults, you know you are living in one of the worst times of the pandemic,” said Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said there are more than 33,000 confirmed cases of contagious variants in Canada. Most are still related to the B.1.1.7 variant first discovered in the UK. But Tam said there has also been a “disturbing rise” in the number of cases of the P.1 variant, which was first associated with Brazil, which is particularly worrying as it may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.
The Pacific coastal province of British Columbia began vaccinating all adults at Whistler ski resort on Monday, which has been hit hard with at least 197 cases of the P.1 variant.