Dr. Henry says daycare children with no symptoms don’t need to isolate, Kamloops daycares still awaiting official word

KAMLOOPS — Navigating the pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but it’s been even more challenging for daycare operators who are dealing with changes on a daily basis.

“Definitely a challenge for families. The information is flying at us. It changes every day,” said Traci Anderson from the Boys & Girls Club of Kamloops. “The concerns are real. I get it. We’re short-staffed. I’ve had to be frontline working with the kids.”

As the Omicron variant is causing more COVID-19 illness, operators are having to do their own contact tracing as the healthcare system is overloaded.

For Kamloops preschool teacher Patti Pernitsky, the mixed messaging and lack of communication has been one of the most frustrating things to deal with during the pandemic, especially of late.

There was a COVID-19 exposure on Jan. 3. Interior Health didn’t contact the daycare until Jan. 11.

“It feels very much that childcare is almost an afterthought,” said Pernitsky. “Here we are providing services for frontline, essential-service workers, but when do we get our break?”

There’s also confusion around isolation periods. While the BCCDC indicates children are supposed to stay home for 10 days if exposed to COVID, Dr. Bonnie Henry now says a healthy child doesn’t need to isolate.

“We’ve understood that more and more people, particularly who are vaccinated, are have milder illness and shorter illness,” said Dr. Henry on Tuesday. “So it is a time of transition right now. We are working with MCFD [Ministry of Children and Family Development] and the childcare sector and early childhood educators.”

However, even though B.C.’s top doctor has said it, daycares are awaiting formal approval from Interior Health to go ahead with no isolation period.

Anderson, who has dealt with sick children and staff, says going from a 10-day to potentially no isolation period — as long as there are no symptoms —will make her life a lot easier.

“It’s easier as an employer for us to have staff back sooner. It’s just easier for kids to get back to normal life, and obviously easier for parents so they can get back to work,” she said. ”

Anderson ultimately worries losing people to illness when the club is already understaffed. In addition to daycare for toddlers, the boys and girls club has doubled the number of kids in youth programs since the pandemic.

“The biggest fear is really just our staff getting ill and us having to close programs and services,” noted Anderson.