Daycare in Calgary’s Suncor Energy Centre closed due to child case of COVID-19

Because of a confirmed case of COVID-19 and on the advice of the medical officer of health, the daycare inside Calgary’s Suncor Energy Centre will be closed until March 23, according to the company.

Suncor spokesperson Erin Rees confirmed late Wednesday night that there is a confirmed case of COVID-19 in a child at the Pump-kin Patch Child Care Centre.

All families of the daycare have been directed to self-quarantine until the end of day on March 20, according to Rees.

Rees clarified that Suncor doesn’t operate the daycare but is helping to share details of the COVID-19 case.

1:44 Alberta’s first juvenile case of COVID-19 confirmed in Calgary

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the child is one of four new cases confirmed in the province Thursday, bringing the total to 23.

The two-year-old from the Calgary zone is recovering at home and expected to make a full recovery, Hinshaw said.

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The child returned with their family from a vacation in Florida and developed mild symptoms upon return to Alberta. The child attended the daycare from March 2 to 6 and tested positive on March 11, the province said.

Hinshaw said the daycare was notified immediately after the positive test was confirmed. All close contacts of the child are self-isolating for 14 days while being monitored by health officials.

2:38 How to talk to your kids about the coronavirus: Alberta’s top doctor

Researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing looked at more than 72,000 confirmed cases from China as part of a recent analysis and found that children under the age of 10 accounted for fewer than one per cent of all infections.

Of the 1,023 deaths recorded in China at the time, none included children.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

The WHO said that 2.4 per cent of reported cases were children and just 0.2 per cent of cases were children who became critically ill.

“We see relatively few cases among children,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Gheberyesus told reporters in February. “More research is needed to understand why.”

– With files from Andrew Russell and Caley Ramsay, Global News