Elementary school students not returning to in-person learning Monday

Premier Doug Ford said the province will release new COVID-19 modelling numbers early next week that will be a "wake-up call" to Ontarians.

"Today's numbers are, to be frank - they are scary", Yaffe said.

Ford stopped short of saying which public health restrictions his government is considering, but has said that a curfew, similar to the one imposed in Quebec earlier this week, is an option.

"We need people to hunker down and stay home, we need you to avoid gatherings with people outside your household, we need you to practice physical distancing when out, wear a mask and wash your hands often", said Ford in a stern address to the public on Friday morning.

"Every single day, we're getting more and more needles into people's arms and protecting more and more of our front-line health-care workers, long-term care residents and most vulnerable", he said. However, with students having been at home for several weeks and with reports of concerning behaviour over the holidays, the positivity rate among school-aged children has increased sharply.

She notes a new challenge is the new United Kingdom variant with six confirmed cases in the province to date. She also pointed out a new strain from South Africa has emerged.

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That process will continued until all states are tallied - or until an objection is raised about the results in a given state. The certification came hours after a mob breached the US Capitol and sent lawmakers scrambling for safety.

This will include an assessment of how and when it is safe to exit the Provincewide Shutdown and move public health unit regions back into the COVID-19 Response Framework: Keeping Ontario Safe and Open, including how a revised approach for the safe reopening of retail may be operationalized.

Trudeau said more than 124,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were delivered to 68 sites across the country this week, and 208,000 more are to be delivered weekly for the rest of this month.

Vaccine distribution was a large part of the conversation during a virtual First Minister's meeting with the Prime Minister Thursday night.

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce.

The Ontario government has extended school closures. Four of the new cases are in people ages 20-39, three are 40-59 and one is over the age of 80.

He also said the province will spend another $380-million to improve ventilation and HVAC systems in schools and hire more custodians.