OTTAWA —
Ontario families with schoolchildren will be under stricter rules starting Monday when it comes to screening their kids for COVID-19.
The province updated its COVID-19 screening tool on Friday to include changes to symptom screening criteria and sibling/household isolation information.
“Everyone in your household should stay home if anyone has COVID-19 symptoms or is waiting for test results after experiencing symptoms,” a statement on the government’s website says. “Stay home until the person with symptoms gets a negative COVID-19 test result, is cleared by public health, or is diagnosed with another illness.”
Ottawa Public Health told CTV News Ottawa by email that it is in the process of updating its own COVID-19 screening tool in time for Monday and that the updated criteria would be distributed to local school boards.
The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit (LGLDHU) said in a statement Friday night that the changes are in response to the threat of COVID-19 variants of concern (VOCs), such as the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K., which has been spreading in Ontario.
“The presence of COVID-19 variants of concern (VOCs) in Ontario has prompted the province to make changes to the guidelines for self-isolation, and changes to the school and childcare screening tool. The VOCs cause COVID-19 to spread more easily from one person to another, and the goal with these changes is to stop/slow the spread of VOCs to the greatest extent possible to prevent new COVID-19 infections and mitigate impacts on hospitals and the healthcare system,” the LGLDHU said.
The health unit said school staff, students and children with any new or worsening symptoms of COVID-19, even those with only one symptom, must stay home without exemption until:
- they receive a negative COVID-19 test result and symptoms are improving with no fever, and they are feeling well enough to go to school, OR
- they receive an alternative diagnosis by a healthcare professional, OR
- it has been 10 days since their symptom onset and they are feeling better.
Single symptom screening was in place in early September when in-person schooling returned following the first wave of COVID-19. In Ottawa, many families waited for hours in long lines for a COVID-19 test for their children. The province later allowed children with only a single symptom of COVID-19, such as a runny nose or sore throat, to return to school 24 hours after symptoms resolve without needing a negative test result.
Testing capacity has increased since September and the province has moved to an appointment-based system. The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce says Ottawa’s assessment centres are open and have capacity to test kids who are symptomatic or who are identified as a high-risk contact and that “same-day or next-day appointments are frequently available.”
Recent rapid asymptomatic testing of Ottawa’s school population resulted in less than one per cent of students testing positive.
