[GTranslate]TORONTO – After Peel’s, Toronto schools will also be closed for two weeks. Yesterday was announced that, given the huge increase in infections, Toronto Public Health decided to transfer all students to online classes: the return to the school desks is scheduled for April 19, after Spring Break week. Only two days ago, Education Minister Stephen Lecce kept saying, like a broken record, that no, schools are safe and would remain open.

The last famous words, in short.

To the inertia of the provincial government in the face of the considerable spread of Covid-19 in Toronto – with variants increasing both the risk of transmission and the risk of serious illness or death – the Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto Eileen de Villa responded firmly. “Stronger public health measures are needed to reverse the wave of infection the province currently faces,” she said. And so de Villa issued a section 22 order under the Health Protection and Promotion Act that requires all elementary and secondary school students to switch to online learning.” Once again, the provincial government has demonstrated the lack of a strategy for weighing up and taking decisions at crucial moments. “Unfortunately, current circumstances require that difficult decisions need to be made locally to protect everyone in our school communities, including students, teachers, and staff.”

And for parents who have to deal with work on one hand and the accommodation of their children on the other, the situation that is expected is a déjà-vu. “Toronto Public Health (TPH) acknowledges that this decision represents a further problem for many, including students, staff and families, and especially those with younger children – reads the TPH statement – the health and safety of students and staff remains a priority for TPH. This action is being taken in an effort to keep our communities safe and prevent the further spread of Covid-19.”

The Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph health unit announced yesterday that schools in the area will now temporarily switch to distance learning. Thunder Bay and Sudbury schools, on the other hand, have already been closed to in presence lessons in March.

This is an ever-changing situation, the current situation, but a large number of infections at the moment does not bode well. In the last twenty-four hours, there have been 236 new infections in schools of the province – 207 students and 29 teachers – bringing the total to 13,498. There are 1,062 schools where outbreaks of the virus have been recorded, 83 closed.

In the meantime, teachers are asking to be vaccinated as soon as possible. They, too, they say, fall into the frontline categories but so far no one seems to have noticed.