Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says it believes schools can reopen on a regional basis without risking the province’s progress of driving down virus spread during the third wave of the pandemic.
The science table, composed of medical experts, medical associations and hospitals across the province, released a statement on Saturday in response to Premier Doug Ford’sThe table said it maintains its longstanding belief that schools should be the last sector to close and the first sector to reopen.
“This deterioration is now evident in the form of increased ambulatory care use and hospital admissions, most poignantly for children and youth with eating disorders,” the table said. “Like so much of the pandemic, these harms and missed benefits are inequitable: those whom the pandemic is hitting hardest are also hardest hit by school closures,” the table said.
Ford’s letter raised specific concerns about reopening schools, including the increasing presence of the B.1.617 COVID-19 variant, which was first discovered in India. Looking ahead to September, the science table said the government should be working over the summer to ensure schools are safe and ready for students to return.