As Ontarians brace for a different type of school year this September, parents may be wondering whether they should be sending their young children to school with a mask — even if it’s not mandatory.
The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
The data is stark — lockdown prevented COVID-19 among wealthy, white Torontonians, but failed to protect low-income and racialized households in the same way. Unfortunately, this comes as no surprise to us as doctors, since we’ve been caring for patients with COVID-19 since the pandemic arrived in our emergency departments.
Like many Ontario parents, Brad Thorpe had never heard of learning pods — until the provincial government announced two week ago that students in the province would be heading back to school in September without reducing class sizes at the elementary level.
The unions representing Ontario’s teachers are calling on the provincial government to change its back-to-school plans and are warning a legal challenge is possible.
Ontario’s southern urban centres were the first and hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, while some rural regions managed to stave off the virus for nearly 10 weeks before cases were reported, data collected by the Star shows.