Ontario sees 88 new COVID-19 cases, mostly in Toronto, Peel and Ottawa

Ontario has revealed its plan to manage potential COVID-19 outbreaks in schools, which describes scenarios in which select students will be sent home and entire schools shut down as a result of positive cases. The strategy calls for all members of a class cohort to be sent home to self-isolate in the result of a single positive case among the group. An entire school may also be shut down if the local public health unit finds evidence of 'potential widespread transmission,' such as a number of positive cases with no known source outside the school. That determination will be at the discretion of local authorities, and not dependent on a particular case count or statistical threshold. At the province's daily news conference on Wednesday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce acknowledged a difficult few months for children and offered reassurances to parents. 'Know if your child returns to school, they will be safe,' said Lecce.