Toronto Public Health moderates child isolation guidelines

Torontosun.com
March 3, 2021
Anthony Furey

Toronto Public Health now appears to be offering more moderate guidelines on how to care for a child who has been dismissed from school or care for having come into contact with someone with COVID-19, guidelines that no longer include ideally keeping the child isolated from all other family members.

The more nuanced recommendations were shared with the Sun following questions about a TPH document that was being sent home with parents which says “your child must immediately self-isolate, which means staying in your home and away from others.”

The document offered no specifics, but TPH’s page on self-isolation rules instructs: “Isolate yourself (stay in your own room) as much as possible; Wear a mask or face covering when leaving your room; Maintain a distance of 2 metres (6 feet) when outside your room.” There are no separate directives for children.

One parent who shared a version of the document with the Sun that was dated October says that her 11-year-old daughter was told by a staff member at school that this meant the daughter had to stay in a separate room by herself.

On Monday, Peel Health apologized for releasing previous guidelines that said children, even small ones, need to self-isolate alone in a room for 14 days, which prompted an outcry from parents and was denounced by experts as “cruel punishment.”

However, Peel’s clarification says children are still expected to isolate indoors for 14 days, they just concede that “a caregiver may need to isolate with them to help with daily living, such as bathing, feeding, clothing and emotional support.”

Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Toronto’s medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa said: “Clearly with young children they’re going to need the support of their parents and caregiver to make sure they’ve got the necessities of life and that they’re properly and well cared for, and the manner in which that is done will help to ensure the safety, yes of the child, and all those in the household as well as the person who is the direct provider of care.”

But a detailed statement to the Sun from Dr. Vinita Dubey, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health, makes no mention of ideally keeping family members apart but focuses more on what they describe as “everyday prevention measures”.

“Parents and caregivers should continue attending to their child and looking after their needs, however they should follow some additional steps for self-protection to prevent further spread of COVID-19 in their household,” Dubey notes.

Those steps include: “Wearing a mask inside the home if you are a caregiver, or parent, or child infected with COVID-19; Isolating as much as possible from family members who are at high-risk of serious illness from COVID-19; Increasing ventilation by opening up windows if it is safe to do so; Disinfecting non-food items such as dishes and utensils; Maintaining physical distancing as much as possible without compromising care.”

It is not clear if these more moderate instructions will make their way onto TPH handouts and the self-isolation web page.

None of these policies are for children who actually have COVID-19, but simply for those who have been in the same space as a child who has tested positive -- such as in the classroom or on a school bus, and therefore may potentially contract the virus.

Ontario’s child self-isolation and school dismissal policies are extreme compared to other jurisdictions, such as those in British Columbia.

“If a student or staff member is confirmed to have COVID-19, and were potentially infectious while they were at school,” the B.C. health website explains, “public health will perform an investigation to determine if there were any potential close contacts within the school.”

The policy in B.C. is not to automatically send the entire classroom home.