At CPE 1-2-3 Picabou, a local daycare service, only group activities that do not require children making contact with each other are practiced now, according to General Director Carole St-Arnaud.

Caregivers try to keep the group’s social distance during these activities as best as they can, with one such activity is the “Morning Circle” which is larger than usual now due to the measures.

Presently, CPE 1-2-3 Picabou’s daycare in Campbell’s Bay cannot exceed 30 per cent of its usual attendance and each group in the daycare cannot exceed 50 per cent of theirs.

Normally, a caregiver may not have more than five children to look after in the group of under 18 months old and now, that limit is two. For all other age groups, the usual limit of children was eight and now it is four.

Furthermore, the daycare service prioritizes spots for children of daycare workers if these children were daycare members prior to the pandemic.

Hard surfaces must be cleaned by the caregivers once an hour and anything else that gets touched by the kids must be disinfected three times a day.

The first disinfection comes after the kids have their morning play, at nap time, when the caregiver cleans while the kids sleep. The second takes place after they have woken up and before leaving to go play outside and the third is done when the kids are going home.

During naptime, caregivers also make sure kids are sleeping far enough away from each other.

Toys are disinfected in a rotational manner, with the ones waiting to be cleaned left at the top of the shelves out of the kids’ reach.

In addition to this, caregivers wear personal protective equipment and, thus, are still able to help the children, for instance, in putting their shoes on.

To further prevent the virus speading, parents are not allowed to enter the building – they must pick up and drop off their kids at the door.

Parents are also called immediately to pick up their child if they are showing potential symptoms of COVID-19. That child would then be isolated from the others in a separate room until pick-up with a caregiver who is required to wear gloves, a special outfit and a mask. Santé Publique would also be notified of the case.

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