Saskatoon child-care centre reports COVID-19 case

A positive COVID-19 case has been identified in someone at the Félix-le-Chat child-care centre, which is connected to the École canadienne-française - Pavillon Monique-Rousseau on Albert Avenue in Saskatoon.

Camille Lapierre, president of the daycare, confirmed there was a case but didn't give any more details.

"All I can say is that we are working with public health officials and we are following their guidelines," Lapierre told a Radio Canada reporter.

The CÉF_Saskatoon (Conseil des ecoles fransaskoises) put out a statement to parents confirming someone who regularly attends the Félix-le-Chat childcare centre in Saskatoon had been diagnosed with COVID-19.

"A public health investigation has been launched by the Saskatoon health authority," the statement read. "Public Health is proceeding the necessary contact tracing and wishes to remind families to watch for the appearance of symptoms on their person and their loved ones.

"In the meantime, school activities will continue as normal and we will keep families informed as the situation develops."

Robert Englebert has a child that attends the daycare.

He said parents in the group immediately affected by the positive test were notified yesterday, but that he and other parents were only officially informed by e-mail this afternoon.

"We actually found out from a friend whose child is in the group that had the case yesterday evening," Englebert said.

Englebert was disappointed with the delay.

"It's really important that parents are given information as soon as a case is discovered so that parents can make a decision as to whether they're going to send their child to school or to keep them home," he said.

Englebert said he doesn't blame the daycare for the delay.

He said government guidelines are weak when it comes to reporting cases in schools and daycares.

"The daycares have done a great job at preparing for prevention ... to prevent cases from coming in. But there are very weak guidelines coming from the province," he said.

"The daycare did its job, they told us quickly. But the problem lies in the fact that they were searching for answers, getting information from the health services and finding out, you know, what are our next steps?"

He said parents would be less stressed if they knew there was a standard way that positive cases were going to be reported.

Patrick Maze, president of the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation, said he had not heard of the case but was not surprised.

"The experts have been predicting that there will be outbreaks in our schools. So one in a daycare isn't completely surprising. But I think it's almost just a matter of time before we start to deal with these types of issues in our K-12 system," Maze said.