A Vaughan parent has been handed a hefty fine after York Region Public Health alleges they sent their child who was experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 to daycare, a spokesperson for the region confirmed to CP24.
According to York Region Public Health, the incident occurred on Aug. 3 at a child-care facility in the region.
They allege that the parent violated the region’s Sec. 22 order by sending their child to daycare despite the fact that they would not have passed the daily COVID-19 screening tool.
The parent was subsequently charged $770 and a victim surcharge fee totalling $880.
Officials confirm that 15 children at facility have now tested positive for COVID-19.
York Region did not disclose the name of the child-care centre but according to the region’s website, there is an outbreak involving 15 children at Tiny Treasures Learning and Child Care Centre Inc.
“If you or anyone in your household is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, you must stay home until a negative test is received and symptoms are improving for at least 24 hours; if the individual is not tested, then individuals must isolate for 10 days,” a statement from York Region read.
“It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure COVID-19 cases in York Region continue to decline; it is more critical than ever we continue following all public health guidelines including self-isolating when you or a member of your household is sick.”
Speaking to CP24 on Monday, one woman who has a child who attends Tiny Treasures Learning and Child Care Centre said her child tested positive days after learning of the exposure. She said while she and her other son subsequently tested negative, her husband later tested positive for COVID-19 along with some family friends that they had seen around that time.
"We really want to remind parents that we need their help to keep other children safe. As you know, children under 12 years of age cannot get vaccinated just now so what we are seeing is when parents send their children with symptoms of COVID-19 into the daycare centre, and given the fact that we have the Delta variant now, it is a very aggressive form of COVID-19 and it seems to have a very high attack rate," Dr. Karim Kurji, York Region's medical officer of health, told CP24 on Monday.
"In this case it was a child that brought it into the centre and given that the incidence of COVID-19 is increasing as a community, we can expect more of these cases to be introduced into these settings."
