Premier Doug Ford is not yet ready to cancel the school year.

Nor is he prepared to reopen the Ontario economy anytime soon.

Schools have been closed since March 23 due to COVID-19, but the premier stressed it’s still too early to writeoff the academic year.

“We can see things loosening up a bit. People want hope,” he told Bill Carroll at CFRA 580 Radio in Ottawa on Wednesday morning.

The premier, who is set to soon reveal a plan for slowly reopening the Ontario economy, conceded “it will probably be later on” that students are back in classrooms, adding Education Minister Stephen Lecce would announce plans within days.

But he suggested Lecce isn’t yet ready to scrap a school year scheduled to conclude June 25.

“I don’t think it will be the final decision, but it will give people a little more certainty on where we’re going,” said Ford.

“Our biggest fear is to make sure this doesn’t spread especially within our schools. I know our kids are resilient, but still my number one concern is protecting our kids out there,” he said.

Ford added that he will look to Dr. David Williams, the chief medical officer of health, for his advice on when the coast is clear.

Williams said the main consideration is the level of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19.

“If we still have widespread community transmission, we’re going to be leery to do that and I think some parents would be leery,” he said.

“Let’s see how we’re going to do over the next number of weeks,” Williams said, noting the virus differs from influenza and “doesn’t seem to be that transmittable from child-to-child.”

A review by the Public Health Agency of Canada suggests patients under 18 are a “very small percentage” of COVID-19 cases and studies suggest children are “very rarely the source of infection for others in the household,” said associate medical officer Dr. Barbara Yaffe.

“Usually there are others who have given it to them, so those are promising findings in terms of children,” she added, noting some of the studies have not been published and it’s “early days.”

Ontario is talking to other provinces about plans for school returns, and possible measures to mitigate risks of the virus spreading in classrooms, lunchrooms and school playgrounds.

Ford, meanwhile, threw cold water on any hopes of a wide open Ontario economy by the Victoria Day long weekend.

“Can we start opening up a trickle of the economy? I’ve got to be very, very clear: there’s never going to be one date that we just open up the economy,” the premier said.

“We’re going to open it up with a trickle and from there just constantly measure, but by no means are we going to have, for instance, the May 24th weekend, we’re just going to open things up. That is absolutely not going to happen,” he said.

“That’s going to be a long, drawn-out process. We’re going to make sure that we do our due diligence and make sure that we communicate with municipalities along with our federal government before we do anything.”

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Ontario has been in a state of emergency since March 17 and will remain so until May 12, though the premier has indicated that could be extended.

“I realize people are getting a little antsy, but nothing’s more important than our health,” he said.

“We’re talking a month down the road. I don’t have a crystal ball and neither does anyone else. If we keep seeing the curve flatten and headed southward, yeah, we can start opening up a little bit at a time. Please have patience.”

Williams said the province must slash its daily increase in new COVID-19 cases by more than half — to 200 or fewer — before the economy can begin reopening.

On Wednesday morning, Ontario reported 361 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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