The new instructions from the Quebec government concerning childcare facilities worry experts, educators and parents, who see them as inconsistent with other health measures. As the government loosens isolation rules in child care settings, parents are being asked to keep their children at home if they can.
New instructions for managing the health crisis were sent to childcare centers in Quebec on December 30, without these having been publicly announced during the authorities’ press briefing the same day.
From now on, children and early childhood educators who have been in contact with a positive person in child care will no longer have to be tested or isolate themselves, unless they develop symptoms of COVID-19.
These children will be considered as “moderate” contacts by the health authorities. It is recommended that they avoid social contact for 10 days, especially with vulnerable people, and watch their symptoms. Remember that toddlers do not have to wear a mask.
In addition, parents are asked not to send their children to daycare if they can avoid it.
“To contaminate an entire environment”
“This means that we are leaving children who could – following the presymptomatic incubation period – be highly contagious and contaminate an entire environment”, affirms straight away Roxane Borgès Da Silva, professor at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal.
Contagious children will infect all their families, because they are important vectors of transmission.
Roxane Borgès Da Silva, professor at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal
The professor understands that in the context of a labor shortage, the government wants to keep children and educators in daycare centers in order to allow parents to work.
But “in an ideal world, this type of rule should not be put in place there. That does not corroborate the guidelines of science which want that, for a contagious disease with respiratory virus, one puts in isolation the contagious potentials ”.
An option, according to Mme Borges Da Silva, would use rapid tests daily with all children to make sure they are not contagious. “With that, we would greatly reduce the risks,” she said.
Shared concerns
“What I find difficult at the moment is that my first role is to ensure the safety and well-being of the children and my staff,” explains Brigitte Prévost, general manager of the CPE À Petits Pas, located in Dorval. There, I feel like I can’t do it. ”
Mme Prévost has taken the initiative to notify all parents by email when a child will have COVID-19 in a group, so that they can remove them, if they can. “I think it’s putting a lot of pressure on our shoulders,” she says, her throat tight.
I’m afraid of ending up with outbreaks that are unmanageable.
Brigitte Prévost, Executive Director of the Childcare Center À Petits Pas
A concern shared by Marie-Ève Tardif, educator in a subsidized family environment in Bromont, in the Eastern Townships. ” From the beginning [de la pandémie], we open our doors, and we hope that we do not open the door to the virus, she argues. But if I catch it [la COVID-19], or my daughter, or my spouse is something else. I put my family in constant danger. ”
For Marie-Ève Tardif too, these instructions go against her practices. “The health and safety of the child is what is supposed to be the most important. There, we do the reverse of that. ”
A puzzle for parents
Organizing without a childcare service is a headache for many parents, even if they work remotely. In the family of Valérie Bellemare and Nicolas Lupien, in Montreal, their two boys aged 4 and 7 will now be looked after by their grandparents, in an extended family bubble, but closed.
“There is a relaxation [des mesures dans les garderies] despite an increase in cases, notes Nicolas Lupien, who works in a manufacturing environment and is a member of the board of directors of his child’s daycare center. And there is an inconsistency between the two different circles [soit les écoles et les garderies]. We are a little shocked, we do not hide it. ”
Nicolas Lupien also fears that the closures, especially of schools, will continue well after January 17. “At least give us the right time!” Tell us it’s gonna be two months, and change your mind faster, rather than giving two weeks and extending it. ”
Towards more stability for children?
“I don’t have the impression that there is an easy solution right now in the context,” said Nathalie Bigras, scientific director of the Quality of Early Childhood Educational Contexts research team at the University of Quebec at Montreal.
Everyone tries to spare the goat and the cabbage, trying to ensure that the educators are there as long as possible, the children too, and that there is no breakdown in service for the parents.
Nathalie Bigras, Scientific Director of the Quality of Early Childhood Educational Contexts research team at the University of Quebec in Montreal
A positive point of the relaxations, according to Mme Bigras, is that they will ensure better stability in the groups of children. “From the perspective of children’s needs, [il est important] that they are in contact with the same people on a daily basis, explains Nathalie Bigras. But I am fully aware that the concerns of educators and daycare services are justified. ”
“Since COVID-19, having a daycare, you do it out of passion for the children, remarks Marie-Ève Tardif. The government wants to keep its educators in daycare centers. But there, he puts us in danger, in other words. ”