[GTranslate]TORONTO – With infections constantly rising in Ontario schools and with the scare of Covid-19 variants increasingly making their way, some epidemiologists expect schools to close again soon. The infections reported on the government website in the last twenty-four hours are 137 – 99 students and 38 teachers – which bring the total to almost 10 thousand cases, 9,949 to be precise.

Predicting the third tightening of schools in the province – after Ontario released updated projection data suggesting that the province could see up to 8,000 cases of Covid-19 per day by April, largely fueled by the spread of the most contagious variants of the disease – is Dr. Colin Furness, an epidemiologist at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. “European experience teaches us that the types of control measures we use are effective against variants, we just need to strengthen them a little bit – Furness told Newstalk 1010 – I expect that we will be in a position where, once the variants have really taken hold, it will be very important to have to close schools, and I expect this to happen in mid-April.”

Moreover, the forecasts of the Ontario Science Advisory Table on Covid-19 are not at all encouraging: the third wave could be fed by the mutated virus that has been shown to be more contagious. The behaviour of the residents of the province in the coming weeks would therefore be of critical importance in determining the quality of the summer that is just around the corner. That glimmer of optimism of the past few weeks, when cases have fallen for several consecutive days below a thousand, is fading more and more in recent days: yesterday, for example, there was a considerable increase in infections, as many as 1,747. “Our ability to control the rate of spread will determine whether we return to normal or if we face the third wave,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of Ontario’s Science Advisory Table on Covid-19.

Moreover, the potential arrival of a third wave has always been taken into account by epidemiologists: last month Furness had foreseen its appearance in April, a situation that would lead to another lockdown. Now the Toronto University epidemiologist hopes to be wrong about the severity of the third wave but believes school closures are inevitable. “The good news is that the climate is changing, we are moving towards warmer temperatures and the administration of vaccines is increasing. So, as terrible as it may seem, I think it will also be quite short-lived. And so I think people need to worry but also be positive,” Furness said.

What is slowly coming to an end has certainly not been a year of rest for Ontario students: since March last year, they have been forced to go between in-presence learning and distance learning between a thousand difficulties and interruptions. In February, the Ministry of Education announced that it would postpone the March Break from March 15 to the week of April 12 to limit the transmission of Covid in the community. Now, in response to Furness’s prediction, a Ministry of Education spokeswoman said her priority is to keep schools open and safe. “By following the best public health advice, we have strengthened our screening, testing, and mask requirements to maintain the safety of students and staff from virus variants,” Caitlin Clark told CTV News Toronto.