Premier Doug Ford has said an announcement on schools is coming, but so far, we haven't heard if the kids will return to the classroom on Monday.
Ontario broke new ground with Wednesday's case count. There was a record 10,436 new infections.
A total of 76,992 people in Ontario have active infections, and the number of people in the hospital has risen sharply since last week. As of Wednesday, there were 726 people in the hospital, an increase of 420 since last Wednesday, and 190 were in intensive care.
In Windsor-Essex, Acting Medical Officer of Health Doctor Shanker Nesathurai has maintained he would prefer schools stay open.
"I think that's a really important public health priority. We have used containment approaches in schools to try to break the chain of transmission. My preference would be to keep schools open except in the most extreme of circumstances," he said.
As for what those extreme circumstances are, he would not definitively say, but he did reiterate the majority of hospitalizations because of COVID-19 are among those who are unvaccinated. He also said high case counts alone should not dictate school closures.
He did advise parents to prepare for online learning or at least an extended break just in case.
"I think it's not unreasonable to at least prepare for the possibility that school openings might be delayed," said Nesathurai.
Windsor-Essex reported 993 new cases since last Wednesday, and there is 1,125 active cases in the region.
