At-home testing for daycare parents

At-home testing for daycare parents

Record Staff

As of next Monday, rapid COVID-19 tests will be provided to parents of children over the age of one who have shown symptoms of the virus, through the province’s daycare centres. These tests will be available for use at home.

According to an advisory issued by the provincial health ministry on Thursday, this new measure is meant to help prevent future outbreaks by increasing the accessibility of testing.

In the case that a test turns up a positive result, parents will need to accompany their child to the closest testing centre to confirm a diagnosis.

The at-home test kits have been prioritized for children from 1 to 4 years of age, given that vaccination is now available for older children.

More information on the new program is available in English on the Quebec.ca website under the heading “Rapid testing in educational childcare services (COVID-19)”
The Province of Quebec reported 1,146 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total number of people infected to 450,513 with 8,869 active cases. There were two new deaths recorded, for a total of 11,583 since the start of the pandemic.

The total number of hospitalizations decreased by 12 to 227, 53 of whom were in intensive care.

In the Eastern Townships there were 1,294 active cases reported by the institute of public health on Thursday. Sherbrooke continued to have the highest number of individual cases, with 486, followed by 192 in Des Sources, 172 in Memphremagog, 136 in Granit, 87 in Haute-Yamaska, 72 in Coaticook, 70 in the Val Saint-François, 51 in the Haut-Saint-François, and 25 in la Pommeraie.

There were 18 people hospitalized in the region for reasons linked to the virus on Thursday, seven of whom were in intensive care.

The Centre de services scolaire de la Région-de-Sherbrooke (CSSRS) announced that the Desranleau school on Galt Street East will be closed until next Tuesday, Dec.7, in light of the fact that the school had 38 cases reported across 10 out of 17 class groups.
The school is one of 73 across the territory that have reported at least one case in the last two weeks.

Santé Quebec reported that the number of children aged 5-11 who have received a first dose of vaccine has increased to 108,337, with another 142,867 who have booked appointments. There have also been 276,019 booster shots administered so far.

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