Premier Doug Ford is sticking to his guns and will wait for expert opinion on a return to in-person learning next month. Ford penned a letter to doctors Thursday asking for their opinion on whether schools should reopen before the provincial stay-at-home order expires on June 2nd. They have until Friday, May 28th at 5:00 pm to respond.
Today, Ford defended his decision citing variants of concern and loose border restrictions for his hesitation to send kids back to school. He insists there has to be a consensus between health experts and teachers’ unions before a decision will be made. Ford says he is willing to wait a couple of days in order to keep students and teachers safe.
Ford also dashed hopes that he is considering reopening the province sooner than mid-June, “We are going to work closely on the guidelines and that was June the 14th and hit those targets…there is more than just the 65-percent in the second doses, we have to look at the ICU capacity, and thank goodness we see it coming down, we have to look at the positivity rate. So, there’s a lot of other factors involved.”
Ford spoke directly to business owners saying it kills him to keep businesses closed, “Mortalities weighs on you more than anything anyone, anywhere, but secondly are these businesses, it kills me to keep these businesses closed, but I have to for the long-term protect everyone’s health. For the short-term pain that we are going to face for maybe the next couple of weeks there’s light at the end of the tunnel and everyone in Ontario knows we’re going to be opening up but we are going to open cautiously and carefully.” Ford says he doesn’t want to see cases increase again and force another shutdown.