B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, said Tuesday if a daycare-aged child has been in close contact with someone who is positive for COVID but the child is healthy, they do not need to stay home from daycare and isolate.
“Yes, you don’t need to,” Henry said. “And that is a change. You don’t need to isolate if you’ve been in contact and you’re a healthy child.”
Up to now, the official requirement from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control is that any child who is exposed to anyone who tests positive for COVID should isolate for 10 days.
But this is changing based on the impact of the Omicron variant in B.C. and more information will be coming soon for parents of daycare-aged children and daycare operators.
Henry said public health has been working with early childhood educators and childcare workers over the last few weeks and said now is a time of “transition.”
“I know we have a town hall with providers and childcare operators in the next coming days and will be working through these scenarios with them,” Henry added.
Following this town hall, Henry said the guidelines on the BC CDC website will be updated.
“Through this whole time we have been in and through the last two years, early childhood educators, childcare workers have done an amazing job at really managing to care for children safely,” Henry said.
“Especially the youngest children who can’t be immunized and still can’t and who can’t necessarily wear masks very effectively either. And I really want to share my gratitude for the sector (that’s) done an amazing job.”
She added she knows it has been a challenge for daycare operators and parents, but in this time of transition, that is when the guidelines can change.
“And we need to help walk people through what that’s going to look like in the coming days,” she said.
Meagan Brame, the director for Saxe Point Day Care in Victoria, told Global News this experience has been hard for families and workers, both financially and emotionally, especially when the website has not been updated.
“It’s a no-win situation and that’s where the clear guidelines can come in,” she said.
“Also, childcare providers don’t want to get sued for not following a guideline and then their insurance company saying, ‘You didn’t follow the CDC, you’ve lost all your liability insurance’.”
Brame said public health officials were quick to implement guidelines and update orders around schools and now the same needs to be done for the last population that is left unvaccinated.