Parents across the province are holding their collective breath as they await news on whether or not Ontario schools will reopen this month for in-person learning.
In a Monday tweet, Premier Doug Ford said officials were poring over information from the Ontario Science Advisory Table published over the weekend and plan to provide an answer on the school reopening question sometime this week.
On Saturday, the Science Table recommended schools be reopened on a regional basis because the benefits of keeping children home are now being outstripped by the physical and psychological impacts of keeping them home.
“While the pandemic was surging, school closures were a necessary step to control that surge," the letter from the Science Table stated. "However, school closures create harm. Surveys show a substantial deterioration of mental health status among children and youth during the pandemic."
The speculation is that Ford will opt to keep students online for the remainder of the school year.
Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, acknowledged he has heard those same rumblings, but like the majority of his fellow medical officers of health across Ontario, he has taken the position that schools should reopen.
“It would be best to open schools at this time and would be beneficial for children to come back and experience the positive health effects and mental health benefits and family health benefits of being in (the) school environment,” Gardner said during Tuesday's weekly media briefing.
Gardner said schools had put in place a comprehensive set of protective measures that greatly reduced the risk of the virus spreading.
“There have been far more exposures in the school environment than transmissions in the school environment," he said.
With transmission rates getting under control, Gardner said this is an opportunity to take advantage of getting kids back in the classroom and reaping the benefits that come with that.
But that decision falls to the province, the cabinet and the premier, noted Gardner.
“I know the premier has raised... his concerns about the new variants, increased activity and potential for the increase in new cases that could undermine our ability to otherwise continue with a road map in opening up,” he said. “He has that to consider and potentially other concerns he has heard — or might be hearing — from other parties related to this.
"Ultimately, it is their decision, (but) I stay by my position (that) it would be best to open now.”
