REGINA -- On April 2, it was announced that this family's COVID-19 test results came back negative. These child care centres will reopen on April 3. A previous version of this story continues below.
Both child care centres at the north west YMCA were temporarily closed on Monday after a family who uses the facility is now being tested for COVID-19.
“Just by the nature of child care with the kids, the care givers and parents are all in close proximity, we just thought better to err on a side of caution and just let the families know that,” Chief Executive Officer of Regina’s YMCA Steve Compton said.
The YMCA said if the family’s tests for COVID-19 come back negative, the child care centres will reopen. It also said if the tests come back positive, the centres will stay closed for two weeks. Parents will not been billed for the time that their children are without its care.
“I hope in hind sight, maybe we would be judged if we did over react a bit, but I’d rather over react than under react to something and not be sharing appropriate information with families and the community,” Compton said.
This temporary closure comes as the NDP are calling for all child care centres in the province to close, except for centres that care for children of essential workers.
“Essential workers, many of whom are in health care are more likely to contract the virus during their work, more likely to pass it along to their kids and then and then spread it to other families of essential workers through day care,” NDP Leader Ryan Meili said.
“That’s not the best model. A better model would be to have either very very small centres, less than seven kids.”
Premier Scott Moe said when it comes to daycares remaining open, the government is following the advice of the province’s chief medical health officer.
He also said child care centres are entitled to make their own decision to stay open or close during the pandemic. Either way, the province will fund child care facilities through April. After that, ongoing funding will be assessed.
“We have provided the opportunity for daycares to operate in a restricted fashion with a number of children allowed to be present in any room or in the daycare at any point in time,” Moe said.
