New health guidelines let mildly symptomatic child care staff attend work
CTV
New isolation guidelines made by the province to address the surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant are drawing criticism from the child care sector.
New isolation guidelines made by the province to address the surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant are drawing criticism from the child care sector.
On Friday, a memo was sent to the early learning and child care sector with new guidelines surrounding COVID-19 symptoms.
The new rules allow staff who are symptomatic to self-screen and return to work if they meet all the criteria, which is:
Staff need one negative COVID test from a provincial testing site/health facility testing location, or two negative self-administered rapid COVID-19 tests taken 24 hours apart.
Staff must have mild and improving symptoms as outlined in the online screening tool, and must be rid of fever for at least 24 hours without any use of fever-reducing medication.
Tara Mills, executive director of Morris Early Learning Centres, said the new rules conflict with their current sick policies.
"If you're sick, don't come to work. We're also asking parents if you're child is sick, please don't send them," said Mills. "So now I potentially have ill staff coming to work that therefore make the children ill."
