The Province To Exempt Certain Child Care Centres Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Sunday, 22 March 2020 12:23

The Province says these child care centres will have to follow existing health and safety requirements and have a plan in place in case any staff, parent or child becomes exposed to the virus.

TORONTO — The provincial government is announcing new measures to ensure frontline workers and health care are supported during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The provincial government announced today they plan to exempt certain child care centres from the order they gave to close all licensed child care centres, which was declared in the Province's state of emergency last Tuesday. This initiative is in partnership with service system managers and First Nations partners.

Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Christine Elliott explains how this impacts frontline workers.

"We need to help our nurses, doctors and frontline care workers to be able to focus on protecting the health and well-being of all Ontarians. By allowing select child care centres to open their doors during these challenging times, our province's courageous frontline workers can rest assured knowing that their families are also being looked after."

Health care and other frontline workers, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, firefighters, police, and correctional officers will be able to access safe, local emergency child care. These child care centres will be required to follow existing health and safety requirements and have a plan in place should any staff, children or parents be exposed to the virus.

Minister of Education Stephen Lecce says strict measures will be put in place.

"During this unprecedented situation, we need to do everything we can to ensure our health care and other frontline staff have the support they need to continue to work. At the same time, we need to protect the safety of the staff and children at these centres. For that reason, we are putting strict measures in place, such as restricting the types of centres that can re-open and keeping the number of children in any one centre low."

A list of locations will be made available on the Province's website once emergency child care centres open. Schools will remain closed from March 14th through to April 5th to ensure students are safe from COVID-19.

You can visit here to learn how the provincial government is continuing to protect Ontarians from COVID-19.