Planning a little trip down south over the holidays with your kids? Schools are starting to remind parents that right now, children not doubly vaccinated must still go through a mandatory 14-day quarantine when returning from a trip and that they will have to miss school days.
Anastasia Pomares is well aware of all of this. “We are going to Guadeloupe from December 22 to January 5 and my son will have to miss two weeks of school due to his quarantine. But we don’t have a family here and it’s been two years since he saw his grandparents, ”she explains.
A student at HEC, she foresees two difficult weeks on her return. “It’s going to cost a lot of babysitter,” she notes.
PHOTO KARENE-ISABELLE JEAN-BAPTISTE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Anastasia pomares
For their part, Charlotte Prenot and her husband reluctantly decided to be separated for Christmas. He will stay in Quebec with the eldest to prevent her from quarantining and thus missing too many days of school. She herself will leave with their baby to her French relatives. “Our 7 year old daughter finds it difficult not to be able to travel,” says Mme Prenot.
No vaccinations in time for the holidays
While in Quebec there is a smell of return to normal with the removal of the mask in high school and the return to the offices, this question of quarantine should not be neglected.
In the Government of Canada, the rule is always the same for non-doubly vaccinated children under 12 years of age. For 14 days after arrival, “the child must not attend school, day camp or daycare”. He also cannot take public transport or participate in large gatherings, “indoors or outdoors, such as an amusement park or a sporting event”.
At the rate things are going, even though the immunization campaign for 5 to 11 year olds begins shortly, children cannot be fully immunized for the holidays.
On November 10, the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services recalled in a notice that “according to the current situation and recent scientific data on the effectiveness of vaccines against COVID-19”, it was still recommended that There is “an eight-week interval between doses of messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA) vaccines against COVID-19 for immunocompetent people.” This interval provides better vaccine efficacy than a shorter interval ”.
Christine Dubuc, who is a travel agent, warns her clients. Cancellation insurance is essential as the precise travel instructions may still need to change between now and the holiday season.
“You need insurance that allows you to cancel the trip even 24 hours before departure,” she says. And not credit card insurance, but insurance from the supplier itself. ”
Absence from school on return from vacation
The Federation of Teaching Unions notes for its part that when a child is sick, teachers will gladly give him work to do to prevent him from falling behind, “but it is a practice that is not certainly not encouraged for reasons related to travel ”, indicates Sylvie Lemieux, press secretary of the union.
The absence of pupils in the days which follow or before the summer holidays is a great classic which does not date from yesterday, whether it is to benefit from better prices on the plane tickets or to extend a stay in the family abroad. But this time, because of the quarantine, the students are likely to be absent much longer, worries Nicolas Prévost, president of the Quebec Federation of the directors of educational establishments. He too stresses that teachers will not increase their task for this. “They do it when a student has surgery, but not for a trip or a hockey tournament. ”