TORONTO -- As provinces continue to push toward living with COVID-19, teachers and staff in Ontario are raising concerns over the rise in absentees in schools across Ontario amid a sixth wave.
Schools in Waterloo, Ottawa and London have all recently reported an increase in absences among students and teachers. Patrick Etmanski, President of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, said one school in Kitchener experienced 13 staff absences in a single day.
This week alone 36 schools in Ottawa reported at least 20 per cent of staff and students as absent, including reasons not related to COVID-19. and the percentage of absences have reached up to 30 per cent and over in some schools.100,000 to 120,000 per day Juni says wastewater collection data was able to determine this high infection rate and roughly five per cent of the province’s population likely have active cases of COVID-19.
"I think there will be an appropriate time and place to lift mask mandates, it's just not now,” said infectious disease expert Isaac Bogoch.