BARRIE, ONT. Schools across Ontario reopened to in-class learning Monday, including Simcoe County and Muskoka, for the first time since the start of the Christmas break in December despite the stay-at-home order remaining in effect. The province introduced enhanced safety measures for schools, including targeted asymptomatic testing for students and staff and mandatory masks for all students, Grades one to 12. Last week, the education minister said it was time to return students to the classroom. We re reopening because we believe it is safe, Stephen Lecce said. Ferndale Woods principal Kadri Jessop said welcoming everyone back was super exciting. I mean, lots of nerves, but if you look around, it is just a great, great opportunity, Jessop said Monday morning.
Two Toronto area seniors homes limit visits from Barrie over COVID-19 variant risk
by Holly McKenzie-Sutter, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Posted Jan 31, 2021 5:52 pm EDT
This 2020 electron microscope image made available by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the spherical particles of the new coronavirus, colorized blue, from the first U.S. case of COVID-19. Researchers in Canada say the best early-warning system for a second wave of COVID-19 may be right beneath our feet, in the sewers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Hannah A. Bullock, Azaibi Tamin/CDC via AP)
Summary
Two retirement facilities in Toronto and neighbouring Mississauga are barring visitors from some communities
Last Updated Saturday, January 30, 2021 2:35PM EST Ontario’s medical officers of health are calling on the Ford government to reopen all schools first before reopening other sectors of the province as transmission of COVID-19 appears to be decreasing. Chair of The Council of Ontario Medical Officers of Health Dr. Paul Roumeliotis penned a letter on Friday to Education Minister Stephen Lecce and Health Minister Christine Elliott. The letter stresses that the “safe reopening of all schools in Ontario is essential” even before community restrictions are lifted. We think now that the time is right. That we re seeing more and more schools open across Ontario before the lockdown indeed has been removed and this should be continued across Ontario where the numbers are appropriate. Again, not to wait for essential businesses to open but if we see levels going down in the right direction we should make that move across Ontario, Roumeliotis tells CP24.
Winnipeg Free Press By: Holly McKenzie-Sutter, The Canadian Press Posted:
Last Modified: 3:09 PM CST Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021
Two Toronto-area retirement homes imposed restrictions on visitors coming from an Ontario region at the centre of a more potent COVID-19 outbreak over the weekend as officials in another district said the more contagious U.K. virus variant had surfaced there as well.
This 2020 electron microscope image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - Rocky Mountain Laboratories shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles which cause COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells cultured in a lab. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP - NIAID-RML