Halton not among regions extending online learning, for now
Published January 12, 2021 at 3:03 pm
Today, (Jan. 12) the Ontario government announced that for the time being, Halton Region will not be among the other regions being forced to extend the duration of their online learning.
Today’s announcement was made by Premier Doug Ford, Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health and Dr. Adalsteinn (Steini) Brown, Co-Chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
Effective Thursday, January 14, 2021, at 12:01 a.m., the government is issuing a stay-at-home order with the exception of essential purposes and based on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, schools in Windsor-Essex, Peel, Toronto, York and Hamilton will not return to in-person instruction until February 10, 2021.
The Chief Medical Officer of Health will advise the Ministry of Education on whether other public health units (PHUs) will be permitted to resume in-person instruction by Jan. 20, 2021, based on the most up-to-date data and modelling.
Before- and after-school programs can be offered when in-person instruction resumes. Schools in northern PHUs will continue to remain open.
To continue to keep students, staff and communities safe, new health and safety measures will be put in place for in-person learning.
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These measures include masking for grades 1-3 and requirements for mask-wearing outdoors, enhanced screening protocols and expanded targeted testing.
Additionally, the government will implement new health and safety measures across the province in child care settings, including enhanced screening to align with school requirements, voluntary participation in targeted testing and additional infection prevention and control measures to align with schools.
Child care centres for non-school aged children will remain open.
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