TORONTO -- Ontario is closing all public schools for two weeks following March break amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday.
It came as the province announced 17 new confirmed cases -- its biggest surge to date -- bringing the total to 59.
The decision to close schools from March 14 to April 5 is based on advice from Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Ford said in a joint statement with Health Minister Christine Elliott and Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
"We recognize the significant impact this decision will have on families, students, schools, as well as the broader community, but this precaution is necessary to keep people safe," they said.
Health officials said one of the new patients is a baby boy, who was in close contact with another patient and attended North York General Hospital in Toronto. It doesn't appear any of the cases were due to community transmission.
Ontario is days away from opening a wave of dedicated COVID-19 assessment centres, the province announced Thursday.
The centres will open in the next few days at William Osler Health System's Peel Memorial site, The Ottawa Hospital, North York General Hospital, Mackenzie Health in York Region, Scarborough Health Network and Trillium Health Partners.
They will be located in separate spaces to protect other patients. More centres are set to be established across the province in the next few weeks.
The province also announced it will extend the one-year transition funding that it offered to municipalities to help deal with public health funding cuts that took effect this year.
Given the rapidly changing domestic and global situation with the virus, the provincial government house leader said Thursday he is working on a motion with opposition leaders that would allow for the suspension of the legislature if necessary.
It will already not sit after Thursday until March 23, and Paul Calandra said such a motion would be a way to extend that break without proroguing the legislature.
The Progressive Conservative government is set to table its budget March 25.
"It is our goal, obviously, to present a budget in the legislature and I think that is very important to us," Calandra said. "I think that's the place where it should happen."
Premier Doug Ford and several top cabinet ministers were in Ottawa on Thursday for a first ministers' meeting, but the in-person discussions were postponed after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, went into self-isolation. Gregoire Trudeau had recently begun exhibiting mild flu-like symptoms following a trip to London.
Ford returned to Toronto to assist in overseeing the COVID-19 response, his spokeswoman said.
Ontario has also approved new physician billing codes for telephone assessments, which will allow doctors to do more evaluations remotely, rather than having people come into their clinics. The province is also in the early stages of planning to establish at-home testing.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said he will be assessing COVID-19's economic impact on the city and looking for ways to protect jobs and the economy.
"These events have already extracted a heavy cost, from conferences cancelled, to restaurant tables not filled, to hotel rooms that are empty, and to workers' hours that have been lost and will be lost," he said. "That total cost will expand as we exercise greater care, as we're discussing today, and as the days pass."
Other new patients reported Thursday are in regions across southern Ontario, including Toronto, Peel, Waterloo and Muskoka, and all have been released into self-isolation.
Some of the patients had recently travelled to places including the United States, Spain and Italy. The 59 total cases included five that have been resolved, meaning the patients have had two negative tests at least 24 hours apart.
Most people diagnosed with COVID-19 experience mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and the vast majority of those who contract the virus recover.
FULL STATEMENT:
Today Premier Doug Ford, Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, issued the following statement in response to the impact of COVID-19 on publicly funded schools as March Break approaches:
"The health and well-being of Ontarians is our government's number one priority
Since we first learned of COVID-19 as an emerging public health issue, Ontario has been diligently monitoring the developing situation to protect the health and well-being of all Ontarians
We have also taken decisive action to ensure the province's health care system is positioned to be ready for any scenario.Given the latest developments both internationally and here at home, today we are taking further action.
Based on advice from Dr. David Williams, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health and the experts at the COVID-19 Command Table, the Minister of Education has issued a Ministerial Order to close all publicly funded schools in Ontario for two weeks following March break, in response to the emergence in Ontario of COVID-19. This order was approved by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
This means that Ontario schools have been ordered to remain closed from March 14 through to April 5, 2020.
We recognize the significant impact this decision will have on families, students, schools, as well as the broader community, but this precaution is necessary to keep people safe.
Today's steps build on a number of actions our government has taken in recent days to respond to COVID-19, including moving forward with additional public health measures, which include enhanced access to screening, expanding lab-testing capacity, and implementing new initiatives to keep the public and frontline workers safe. We are further setting aside up to $100 million in contingency funding in the upcoming 2020 budget to address challenges related to COVID-19.
We are further mindful of those who work in other public institutions and buildings. As this situation evolves, Ontario's COVID-19 Command Table is prepared to respond quickly and effectively to any scenario and provide the government with advice on measures to keep the public and frontline workers safe.
We are committed to working with partners to keep students safe and we expect to provide further information in the near future.
Our public health system has demonstrated remarkable responsiveness to COVID-19 and these measures we are putting in place will ensure that we continue to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Ontario and thereby protect children and families across the province.