10 schools closed in Dufferin-Peel Catholic board due to COVID-19 outbreaks

Peel Region's Catholic school board closed three more schools to in-person learning due to COVID-19 outbreaks Friday, for a total of 10 across the board.

The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board shuttered three elementary schools as of Friday: San Lorenzo Ruiz, St. Cornelius and St. John the Baptist elementary.

St. Sofia School in Mississauga, Ont., is among the schools that have been closed for longer.

It's reporting 10 students and five staff members who are ill with COVID-19.

Spokesman Bruce Campbell says the board has been forced to shutter the schools to in-person learning because of teachers who have been directed to self-isolate.

He says there aren't enough permanent staff and occasional teachers to "provide safe supervision and to maintain operations in an in-person environment" at the facilities.

More than a dozen of the board's other schools have sent entire classrooms home due to the virus.

The Ministry of Education says 38 of the 4,828 schools across Ontario are currently closed due to the virus, while 908 schools are reporting at least one case of COVID-19.