Elementary and secondary students in Ottawa and some other parts of Ontario will be returning to the classroom starting next week.
According to a press release from the Ontario government, 280,000 students will resume in-person learning on Feb. 1.
“On the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, with the support of the local Medical Officers of Health, and with the introduction of additional layers of protection, 280,000 students in four public health regions will return to class,” Stephen Lecce, Ontario’s minister of education, said in a statement.
Elementary and secondary schools within the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, the Middlesex-London Health Unit, Southwestern Public Health, and Ottawa Public Health are allowed to return to in person learning next week.
With the reopening, 520,000 students in the province to be able to have in-person lessons.
“The government agrees with the growing consensus in the medical community that returning students to in-person learning is essential to the wellbeing, development and mental health of children,” Lecce said.
“According to leading medical and scientific experts, including Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, our province’s schools are safe places for learning.”
Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, had already called on the province to open schools in the city, according to a report by CBC News.
“The level of community transmission in Ottawa is similar to, or lower now, than it was at our peak in October when schools were open and we managed that level of COVID in the schools,” Etches said on Tuesday.
As more than 100,000 students in Ontario returned to class on Jan. 25, the Ontario government introduced additional measures to ensure that schools remain safe.
The additional measures are province-wide targeted asymptomatic testing, enhanced screenings, and mandatory masks for students in grades one through three, and outdoors when physical distancing cannot be maintained.
With files from CBC News and Laura Glowacki
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