The Catholic School of St.  Brendan in the Port Union area of ​​Scarborough took place in the first two weeks of March without any reports of COVID-19.
In fact, no one had reported to the school since February 1st.
Toronto Catholic Schools is one of the few county boards still to detect COVID-19 cases after provincial regulations were changed in January.
The first two cases in weeks at St.  Brendan reported March 23 – two days after the lifting of compulsory schooling requirements in Ontario.
Two days later, another case was reported.
Then two more, then two more the next day.
Five days after the first case, four more staff or students tested positive.
Sixteen days later, 115 cases of COVID-19 were reported at school, including 39 in the last three days.
“We continue to follow the advice and guidance from (Toronto Public Health) and at the moment, the courses are not being rejected,” TCDSB spokeswoman Shazia Vlahos told CP24.  “A letter of courtesy is sent to the class where there is a positive case and people are called to watch for symptoms.”
Provincial rules that went into effect in March dictate that children exposed to COVID-19 do not need to stay home, but should monitor themselves for symptoms.
The cases revealed by the board of St.  Brendan, which has about 540 students, may not reflect the entire transmission at this school because case detection is voluntary and also depends on the availability of a quick test.
“Cases are reported to the TCDSB at the discretion of staff and families.  “Therefore, the hypothesis counts on the control panel may not reflect the total number of people with COVID-19,” the commission said on its website.
The epidemiologist of the University of Toronto, Dr.  Colin Fernes told CP24 that while you can not directly link the end of the mandatory mask to a situation like the one unfolding in St. Brendan, it certainly increases the risk.
“There is no doubt that it increases the risk – there is no guarantee that we will have an outbreak 48 hours later.
“Diseases move in populations at the time the disease chooses,” Furness said.  “There was probably a lot of infectious pressure in this community when the masks came out.”
At TCDSB schools that reported on Thursday, 10.2 percent of students were absent on Wednesday.
On the last day that St. Brendan reported attending the county on Monday, 12.1 percent of the students were absent.
At the Toronto District School Board on Wednesday, 14 percent of students were absent from schools that submitted data.
Furness said the lack of school-related test data, as most councils no longer disclose public affairs, makes it difficult for anyone to accurately assess the risk of school attendance.
“We do not know if we are dealing with an extreme situation here or if every school is facing a situation like this.”
He said that in his opinion, Ontario has never conducted enough tests on school populations to determine whether schools were a high-risk environment or not, or what factors make some schools higher-risk than others.
Rapid testing did not become widespread in schools until December 2021, and access to PCR tests gradually ceased in most schools about two months later.
“We are creating a really dangerous situation when we are not going to test in schools, we are not going to do measurements in schools and we are not going to encourage vaccination (among young children).”
For its part, Toronto Public Health said it has not taken action specifically on the situation in St. Louis.  general information to the whole school community.
“While the Department of Education no longer requires masks for students and staff in schools, school boards and student transportation, Toronto Public Health continues to encourage the use of masks,” a spokesman told CP24.
“TPH will continue to monitor local epidemiological trends closely and provide additional information or guidance as required.”