Schools in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, have been shut as the country is witnessing a third wave of coronavirus fuelled by more infectious variants, reported the Associated Press. The schools will remain shut from Wednesday, classes will move online and the decision will be re-evaluated later this month.

Also read: Justin Trudeau asks ‘exhausted’ Canadians to ‘hang in there’ as vaccine rollout accelerates

The Canadian province of Ontario is recording about 3,000 COVID-19 cases every day. Its capital, Toronto, has one of the largest school districts in North America.

Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford has been criticised for not doing enough to rein in the COVID-19 outbreak. He termed the school as safe. Ford also refused to shut shopping malls and then went on to rebuke people for using them.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that countries around the world are facing “a very serious third wave of this pandemic.” “And right now, so is Canada,” he said.

Trudeau said he will speak to Ford over the spike in COVID-19 cases, what it means for hospitals and how important it is to vaccinate people as quickly as possible. 

Also read: 7 days, 549,000 cases, and night curfews: India fights 2nd Covid surge

Canada has recorded over one million COVID-19 cases and 23,132 deaths, as per Johns Hopkins University’s tally.