The general direction of public health of Quebec recommends reducing the isolation of children in daycare from 10 to 5 days, and the end of the isolation of groups in the event that COVID-19 is detected in one of the children, indicates a document obtained by The duty.
These recommendations, signed by Dr Horacio Arruda on January 10, call for 5 days of isolation for children under 12 who go to daycare or primary school in the event of contact with a person carrying the disease. illness at home. They can then “go back to their activities” if they get a negative rapid test.
The same recommendation is made if a child under 12 is symptomatic: it is suggested to allow the return to daycare or school after 5 days, if he obtains a negative. And this, “whatever the vaccination status”.
If the test result is positive, the child will have to stay in isolation for five more days.
In the document, Public Health justifies its recommendations by the “low probability of complications in infected children”. “The cumulative negative impacts of children’s isolation” on their learning and development are also cited, as are the effects on “the availability of labor”.
Contacted by The duty, the office of the Minister of the Family (MFA) indicated that, for the moment, no new recommendations were sent to the network.
Applied in Montreal
The 5-day rule will be applied in daycare centers in Montreal, according to official instructions from the Montreal Public Health Authority concerning daycare services and dating from January 12, which The duty obtained.
The isolation period is thus 5 days for children under 12 and adults adequately vaccinated if they are symptomatic or positive for COVID-19. The child can therefore return to daycare if he has had a negative rapid test on the fifth day. If the child does not have access to a rapid test, he or she must remain in isolation for five more days.
If someone who lives with them tests positive, the child’s isolation will also be for five days. The same if the little one develops symptoms.
A person who had COVID-19 after December 20 is also considered immune for 60 to 90 days after the isolation period is over, according to the document from the COVID-19 Outbreak Prevention and Management Team in childcare settings.
Montreal Public Health, which in early January suspended the new Quebec directive no longer requiring mandatory isolation for children or educators who have been in contact with a person positive for COVID-19 at the daycare, did not not wished to react when contacted by The duty. Quebec then did an about-face a week ago, and reinstated the mandatory 10-day isolation.