The province announced Wednesday that all elementary and secondary schools in Ontario’s southeastern region will be allowed to return to in-person learning Jan. 25.
“On the advice from the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the government is allowing seven public health units and over 100,000 students to return to class on Monday,” Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education said in a statement Wednesday evening.
According to the province, all schools that fall under the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, Hastings Prince Edward and Leeds, Grenville and Lanark health unit catchment areas will be able to show up to class next week.
This means that schools in Limestone District School Board, Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board and Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board will be able to return to in-person learning.
The province said that some schools belonging to other boards that fall into these three health unit’s catchment areas will also be able to return, including the Upper Canada District School Board, the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario and the Conseil scolaire de district catholique du Centre-Est de l’Ontario.
KFL&A Public Health says the following schools run by out-of-region boards will open Monday: École Publique Madeleine-de-Roybon, École Secondaire Mille-Iles, École Elementaire Mgr-Remi-Gaulin and École Secondaire Catholique Maire-Rivier
The Upper Canada District School Board has released the following list to distinguish which of their schools fall under which health unit.
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health said two schools from Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario fall within their boundaries, École Cité-Jeunesse and École Secondaire Marc-Garneau, as well as one school from Conseil des écoles Catholique du Centre-Est, École L’Envol.
All three regions have significantly lower active case counts than other regions in the province.
As of Wednesday, the Kingston region has 12 active COVID-19 cases, the Belleville region has 26 active cases and the Brockville area has 20 active cases of the disease.