The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) says a Scarborough high school remains open despite 13 cases of COVID-19.
Thirteen students at Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute at 150 Tapscott Road, in the city’s Malvern area have been infected with the novel coronavirus.
Despite this, the TDSB said Monday that the school remains open. A total of seven staff members and 69 students have been asked to self-isolate as a precaution.
"We take our lead from Toronto Public Health, which does not currently believe a closure is necessary," the TDSB said in a statement. "In the meantime, the school continues to follow allow the necessary health and safety protocols such as enhancing cleaning, the wearing of masks, proper hand hygiene and physical distancing.
In the past three weeks, the Malvern neighbourhood has been the fourth hardest-hit neighbourhood in all of Toronto, with the equivalent of 596 cases detected per 100,000 people between Oct. 23 and Nov. 12.
Only the Bathurst Manor, Black Creek and Maple Leaf areas of the city have higher rates of infection.
High schools in Toronto and other regions anticipated to have elevated rates of COVID-19 infection are operating in a hybrid “quadmester model, with students coming to school for every other morning with virtual instruction in the afternoons.
There were 188 known active cases of COVID-19 among students and staff in the TDSB on Monday.
“What is happening in our schools is a reflection of what is happening in our community so as we are seeing more transmission of COVID-19 in the community by nature we see more of it in the schools,” Ontario’s Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said during a briefing on Monday afternoon. “The good news is that we are not seeing much evidence of transmission in the schools so once cases are identified the measures that are put in place have been very effective at controlling that transmission.”
