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Five 12 staff members at a child care facility tested positive for Covid-19 before the reopening of daycare and after-school services on Monday.
All five members were asymptomatic from the virus and would have reported to work normally on Monday had they not been tested, according to Elaine Dunne, president of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers. The anonymous facility in Munster will not reopen as planned, said the group, which represents more than 1,600 providers throughout the state.
Ms Dunne said child care providers are “terrified” to return to work on Monday due to the sharp increase in the number of Covid-19 cases recorded over the weekend.
Childcare facilities for frontline and essential workers open as usual on Monday, although schools will remain closed until January 11 at the earliest.
Nor is it expected that the Government’s Early Childhood Care and Education Program (ECCE) will be restarted until January 11.
Staff anxiety
Dunne said the latest Covid-19 figures, which had nearly 5,000 infections reported Sunday, had caused a lot of anxiety among staff.
She said this had been compounded by the fact that children are much more susceptible to a new variant of Covid-19, which is believed to spread faster than the original, and an eight-year-old boy died in Bristol, England over the weekend. .
“We have not been given clear guidance on what a child’s symptoms are. It was very hit or miss before. We have not received any guidance on the symptoms of the new variant, “he said.
Ms. Dunne said that the closing of the daycare centers in the spring meant that many frontline workers had no choice as family members were unable to care for their children.
He stressed that federation members wanted to care for the children of frontline workers, such as doctors, nurses, and paramedics, but that should not be extended to essential workers such as supermarket personnel, transportation workers, and paramedics. involved in essential factory work, given the numbers today. .
Ms. Dunne noted that child care workers have a very low priority for vaccination and said they should be a higher priority.
“We are currently at number 11 on the list right now. We are the only group here that can keep the economy open and running. Out of respect, we should be treated as front-line workers. “
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