Starting Monday, Quebec daycares will offer parents rapid COVID-19 screening tests for children with symptoms of the virus, Quebec announced Thursday.
Daycare workers, however, will not be allowed to perform the rapid test themselves. “These rapid tests can be used by parents at home,” read the press release from the Department of Health and Social Services. If it turns out to be positive, it will be necessary to confirm the result in a screening center, because of a “lower reliability” of these tests compared to those used in the laboratory.
In addition to preventing outbreaks, this new measure is part of the desire to bring “more autonomy in the way of screening Quebecers”, writes the ministry. Distributing rapid tests in Quebec daycares responds to a demand from them, in addition to “simplifying the daily life of parents as the holidays approach”.
“We know, there is a lot of inconvenience in bringing children to screening centers,” said DD Mylène Drouin, regional director of public health in Montreal, during a press briefing held Wednesday.
Regarding the use of rapid tests, DD Mylène Drouin affirmed that there was “nevertheless a prospect of using them in certain specific contexts and perhaps of extending them”. It remains to be seen whether these tests will be as effective with the variants, she added.
With Henri Ouellette-Vézina, Press