(Quebec) Horacio Arruda recommended to the Legault government last Monday – the day of his resignation – to reduce to five days the period of isolation for children under 12 symptomatic of COVID-19. The former national director of public health, however, specified that a negative self-test on day five of isolation should be required in order to return to class or daycare.
Posted at 5:30 p.m.
This information is published in a written recommendation which was signed on January 10 by the Dr Arruda. Quebec will provide an update on the issue on Thursday and affirms that discussions are not over on this subject between the government and public health, now headed by Dr Luc Boileau.
In the document, which circulated extensively on Wednesday and which was obtained by Press, the general directorate of public health affirms that “the arrival of the Omicron variant leads to changes in case and contact management policies”. She justifies these changes by considering, among other things, “the low probability of complications in infected children”, “the increased vaccination coverage in primary school children” and “the cumulative negative impacts of children’s isolation on their learning, development and survival. personal security ”.
The new rules
Thus, the public health department headed by Horacio Arruda recommended in Quebec that children under 12 follow isolation rules similar to those aged 12 and over in the future.
If the government goes ahead, children with symptoms of COVID-19 who attend elementary school will be able to return to school after five days of isolation, while still having a negative self-test performed on day five of their isolation. Wearing the mask continuously and a distance of two meters will however be required for the following five days. However, if the self-test performed after five days of isolation comes out positive, the isolation period will be extended by five days.
At the early childhood level, public health has recommended that children attending the preschool network and day care centers follow the same protocol as those going to elementary school, with the nuance that they will not have to wear a mask when they return to school. installation.
Contact isolation
The Dr Arruda and his team also recommended in Quebec that people living at the same address as a citizen symptomatic of COVID-19 isolate themselves for five days before returning to their activities, while maintaining a distance of two meters and in wearing an intervention mask continuously for an additional five days.
In the recommendation, public health also writes that children under the age of 12 who are not symptomatic, but who have someone in their home showing symptoms of COVID-19, will have to self-isolate five days before being able to return to school or daycare with a negative self-test.
Quebec will provide an update on Thursday on the return to class of the students scheduled for January 17. The new national director of public health, Dr Boileau, must give an opinion on this subject to Prime Minister François Legault on Wednesday.