Omicron variant case at child-care program

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This article was published 11/12/2021 (1147 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A COVID-19 case in a Winnipeg child-care program has been identified as the omicron variant.

A notice sent to parents from Little Voyageurs Learning Centre on Saturday was posted on Twitter by @CovidSchool, an account run by an anonymous parent who shares such letters.

The notice states the centre’s preschool program was shut down because of a COVID-19 case that has since been identified as the omicron variant of concern. A letter sent to parents at the centre’s École Provencher site last weekend said the preschool program was closing because of two COVID-19 cases. It appears one of those two cases was later identified as omicron.

The school-age program is now closed because 18 staff members have to be tested for the coronavirus and cleared before they can return to work.

“We are anxiously waiting to get back to what we do best, which we hope will be on Wednesday,” the letter to school-age parents states.

Another notice sent Saturday to parents whose children attend the École Provencher site said that because there is a case of the omicron variant, everyone in the household of children deemed to be close contacts must quarantine until they receive a negative test result, regardlress of their vaccination status.

The licensed child-care centre has three locations, at École Provencher, Marion School and Prince Edward School. The Provencher site has spaces for 60 school-age children and 48 preschool children, Little Voyageurs’ website states.

New modelling released by the federal government on Friday suggests the omicron variant could lead to a surge in COVID-19 cases. Omicron has the potential to spread more rapidly than the dominant delta variant.

The province has announced five cases of the omicron variant in Manitoba as of Friday, but the Little Voyageurs case is the first linked to an identified location. The province has said little about the five announced cases. Two of the five infected people had travelled to one of the 10 southern African countries that are currently under a Canadian travel ban. The other three are close contacts of the second announced case.

A letter sent to parents by the provincial health department on Tuesday said at least one person who later tested positive for COVID-19 and might have been infectious was at a Little Voyageurs site on Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 2.

“The child-care centre is working closely with public health officials and is following their recommendations,” the government letter states.

Children deemed to be close contacts of the infected person were sent the letter and ordered to quarantine until Sunday, or as directed by public health officials. Health officials recommended the children be tested seven days after their last potential exposure.

adam.treusch@freepress.mb.ca