SUDBURY -- Beginning Monday, there will be no in-person classes at schools in Greater Sudbury. However, schools will be open Friday.

The Rainbow District School Board said school-based childcare will continue, but all before and after school programs will be suspended.

"Please note that all children will be leaving school tomorrow with all their personal belongings," said a post from the Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l’Ontario, the French public board.

The move to close schools comes on the day the province announced we are moving into the grey-lockdown zone under the COVID-19 provincial framework. The Ontario government made the announcement Thursday morning on the advice of the chief medical officer of health.

The area covered by Public Health Sudbury & Districts has seen cases surge in the last month, with a one-day record of 34 cases recorded on Wednesday. Between March 3 and 9, the region's COVID-19 infection rate increased by 54.1 per cent to 75.9 cases per 100,000 residents, the province said in a news release on Thursday.