Canada's Ontario province will reopen schools for in-person learning on Jan. 17, Premier Doug Ford's office said in a statement.

Ontario, which is Canada's most-populous province, had last week decided to shut all schools until at least that date, amid a surge in coronavirus cases caused by the Omicron variant.

The province had then cited staff absenteeism due to infections as an issue and expected it to rise and affect operations in schools as well as workplaces.

(Reporting by Rachna Dhanrajani and Jaiveer Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast)