Toronto Public Health (TPH) has given an Etobicoke high school the all clear to reopen on Tuesday.
Posted Oct 19, 2021, 06:27AM EDT
Toronto Public Health (TPH) has given an Etobicoke high school the all clear to reopen on Tuesday.
Students and teachers at Silverthorn Collegiate are returning to the classroom a week after their school became the first in Toronto to shut down during the 2021-22 academic year.
Students at the high school near Burnhamthorpe and Mill Road went back to remote learning on Oct. 12, following the Thanksgiving weekend, because of a COVID-19 outbreak at the school.
Returning students and staff will have to complete daily COVID-19 screening. TPH says rapid tests will also be available for everyone returning and are voluntary for anyone who has no symptoms.
If the rapid test is positive than the individuals must get a PCR test and self-isolate until the PCR test is negative. TPH says take-home PCR tests are available at the school.
According to the TPH website, four of the seven confirmed cases at the school have been resolved.
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Meanwhile, COVID-19 outbreaks have been declared in three more Toronto schools.
Two or more cases of the virus have been linked to Michael Power St. Joseph High School in Etobicoke, Africentric Alternative School in North York, and John McCrea Public School in Scarborough. All three schools remain open for now.
TPH says they are investigating all three and are working to notify any close contacts.
Greenholme Junior Middle School in Etobicoke remains closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak, according to the TPH website there are 12 active cases at the school among students and staff.
According to the Ontario Ministry of Health, there have been 1,255 confirmed infections among students and staff over the last two weeks. Just over 13 per cent of schools in the province have at least one confirmed case of COVID-19.
A recent survey from the Angus Reid Institute suggests that half of parents in Canada with kids under the age of 11 are ready to vaccinate their children against COVID-19.
One in two parents told the pollster they plan to get their kids vaccinated as soon as they’re eligible.
This number jumps to 63 per cent in households where parents have a university education and dips to 46 per cent for those with a high school diploma or less.
