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Toronto high school stops in-person classes after COVID-19 outbreak

Doctor in protective gloves & workwear putting COVID-19 test swab into a kid girl’s nose and collecting sample for the rapid diagnostic test.

On Monday, Toronto Public Health (TPH) confirmed that all in-person classes and activities at Silverthorn Collegiate Institute, a high school in Etobicoke, have been halted due to a COVID-19 outbreak.

"TPH continues to investigate this COVID-19 outbreak, including following-up with close contacts, providing guidance and recommending whole-school testing," the release from Toronto Public Health reads.

"TPH is also encouraging vaccination for the entire school community including family members of students, if they have not already been fully vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine."

The local health unit confirmed that the decision to move the whole school to virtual learning comes after "a careful and detailed investigation, newly reported cases over the weekend, and potential exposures at multi-grade events."

The school is located near the Burnhamthorpe Rd. and Mill Rd. intersection.

A COVID-19 outbreak is declared when there are two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases linked within a school over a 14-day period.

"COVID-19 activity in the school setting is not unexpected, given that the virus continues to circulate in Toronto and how transmissible Delta variant is," information from Toronto Public Health reads.

As of Oct. 8, there were 21 active outbreaks in Toronto schools and 30 active investigations in 122 school settings in the city.

Ontario reported 390 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, with 215 of the cases in completely unvaccinated individuals. There are 155 people in hospitals with COVID-19, including 149 in ICUs in the province.