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HB NEWS PRESUMPTIVE TESTING FOR STUDENTS, STAFF NOW THE NORM | REVISED PROVINCIAL PROCESS MEANS NO SCHOOL COVID-19 CASE COUNTS KATHY YANCHUS kyanchus@metroland.com If you are sick, home. That's the bottom line for students and staff of the School stay ous provincial testing pro- tocols. The sheer volume of cases across the province, and lack of timely access to PCR testing at community sulted in revised Ministry case and contact management procedures, as outlined to board trust- ees at the Jan. 5 meeting. Confirmation of the vi- rus no longer requires testing through an assess- ment centre; diagnoses are now presumptive based on the onset of symptoms or a positive test result from a self-administered PCR 01 Rapid Antigen test RAT). Ifyou have one of the fol- lowing symptoms — fever/ chills, cough, shortness of breath or decrease/loss of smell and taste — or two or more of these symptoms — sore throat, extreme fa- tigue, muscle aches/joint pain, headache, runny nose/nasal congestion or vomiting or dial you are presumed t to have VID. Isolation measures have also changed. "We'll help families nav- igate this because we've had different changes throughout the past couple of years in terms of what does it mean for someone that has COVID? What are the implications for tamily members?” s Blackwell, cunatinteneat of education. Public health messag- ing requires anyone who is sick to stay home along with their household mem- bers, however, isolation pe- riods have been reduced, said Blackwell. Those 12 years of age and older who are fully vaccinated or those 11 years old and younger, regard- less of vaccination status, must isolate for a mini- mum of five days from the onset of symptoms, and un- til symptoms have been im- proving for 24 hours (or 48 hours for gastrointestinal symptoms), whichever is longer in duration. Those 12 and older, and either partially ¥ yaccinated regardless of their age, mustisolate for 10 days from the onset of symp- toms. Isolation requirements are not solely for the indi- vidual with COVID, but the entire family, said Black- we tnose i in isolation with access to testing must have two consecutive negative RAT tests (24-48 apart) and symptoms: must be improving for 24 hours (or 48 for Glsy symptoms), be: Graham Paine/Metroland New guidelines for school boards are in place in the face of unrelenting Omicron cases. fore the isolation Period for suspet case and ho suschold inembers can end, according to board in- formation. Similarly, for those iso- lating, one negative PCR test with 1_symptoms that are ing over 24 hours or 4 48 hours for GI symptoms) will allow th: suspected case and house- hold members to end their period of isolation. This also means that the board, as well as the Minis- try of Education, will no ding CO- schools and "letters that previously came home will not be coming home.” New reporting process- es for school boards will be forthcoming from the min- istry, according to Black- well. "We will be reporting back when we hear from the ministry in terms of what the new communica- tion looks like because we know that our families io be informed as do ckwell. have access to non-fit-test- ed N95 masks and students, 3-ply non-medical masks. The board's inability to confirm and post case numbers is of great con- cern to parents, said Bur- lington trustee Andrea Grebenc. "I lay this right at the feet of the province be- cause they have let us get to this point where we are now flying blind, absolute- ly blind. We have no accu- rate case counts out there at all and it is frustrating as a trustee. I feel for the com- munity," said Grebenc. Tl rovince was warned in mid-December is own science table about the colossal surge in numbers expected with the arrival of the Omicron variant and | ignored it," said Greben: EMERGENCY CHILD CARE AVAILABLE FOR FRONTLINE, HEALTH-CARE WORKERS MELANIE HENNESSEY mhennessey@ metroland.com With local schools closed and children lea: ing online, Halton is once again offering emergency child care to health-care and frontline workers. The Region has part- nered with the Ministry of Education and select child- care operators in George- town, Milton, Burlington al ore sey provide free emer; which is fully funded ty —— the provincial govern- ment. Eligible workers will al- so have access to licensed home childcare providers in all four municipalities. Full-day spaces will be available for those eligible children aged four to 12 who are registered for school in Halton. “Throughout the pan- demic, our health-care and have und the« clock to keep our reommunity safe," said Regional Chair Gary Carr. “We will continue to en- sure our critical workers have the support they need as they respond to CO- VID-19. Thank you to our children services team, the Province and our local child care providers for working together to pro- vide this essential service." According to Halton Re- gion, spaces are limite and those who crovloucly applied for targeted emer- gency child care need to re- ap] Tor detals on 1 eligibility http: hit i acuta or call 311. 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