Education minister makes case for possible resumption of in-class learning this fall

TORONTO — Millions of Ontario students could return to schools this September if it’s safe to do so, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Thursday, acknowledging that shrinking COVID-19 case counts might make the resumption of in-class learning possible.

Lecce said during the province’s daily pandemic briefing that since the government announced its multi-pronged school reopening plan last month, COVID-19 numbers have declined, prompting a shift in thinking.

The shift comes weeks after the province told school boards to prepare for an array of options, including a return to regular classroom learning, online learning or a combination of the two.

“The preference of the government continues to be everyday, day-to-day, conventional in-class delivery,” Lecce said. “But the prerequisite has to be safety.”

While cases appear to be on the decline across Ontario, he added, the province must be prepared to respond to any potential spike in the fall.

“Over the past three weeks since we made that announcement, we’ve seen a significant reduction in the amount of cases of COVID in Ontario,” Lecce said. “The reason why we have a plug-and-play scenario of three different plans is because we need to be ready because we do not know what will happen in August.”

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, said he understands the desire of working parents to have a definitive answer on schools for September.

But it’s hard to know where the province’s COVID-19 case count will be next month, he said.

“If we’re going to go with one scenario ... how would that be done in such a way that we would be convinced it was containable and safe, and at the same time, reassure parents, students and teachers?” he said.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Christine Elliott said 86 of the province’s 170 new cases reported Thursday were among temporary foreign workers in the Windsor-Essex region.

While the local health unit’s numbers differed, their statistics showed that more than 100 workers have tested positive for the virus over the last week. The workers are all from farms with existing outbreaks.

The health unit said as many as 300 agri-food workers are in isolation in local hotels, though not all have tested positive.

In addition to the new cases, Ontario reported three new deaths due to the novel coronavirus on Thursday.

The total number of cases now stands at 36,348, which includes 31,977 marked as resolved and 2,703 deaths.