Follow-up to positive test at Ecole Polson Park PS

October 10, 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians:

You may have heard that there has been a positive test for COVID-19 at Ecole Polson Park Public School, in Kingston yesterday.

The school board has issued information that the affected person is isolating at home and is following directives from public health. Any affected members of the school community have been notified.

We are in contact with the school and have been advised that there has been no contact between the affected individual and our program at the school. We will continue to monitor the situation and to inform you of any developments.

At the YMCA of Eastern Ontario, the safety of your children is our primary concern. That is why we have put protocols in place that meet or surpass the requirements of public health. These measures include, but are not limited to, additional deep sanitization of surfaces, removing difficult-to-clean toys, PPE for staff, strict adherence to maintaining cohort bubbles, and daily self-screening that you complete for your child each day.

With safety and strict policies in place, our school age care program will remain open. It is important that parents continue to be vigilant in monitoring their child for symptoms and taking action to limit the spread of infection. 

Under the province’s newest guidelines, children with the following symptoms should not attend program and should call their healthcare provider or go to an assessment centre for a COVID test:

• Fever (37.8), cough (barking, croup, whistling sounds), shortness of breath (difficulty breathing/wheezing) or changes to sense of taste or smell

If a child has one of the following symptoms, they must stay home for a minimum of 24 hours but are able to return to program once the symptoms have improved and they are feeling better:

• Congested/runny nose, vomiting/nausea/ diarrhea, headache, sore throat, fatigue/muscle ache/malaise  

If child is experiencing two or more of the following symptoms they are not able to attend program until they speak with their health care provider or go to the assessment center for a COVID test. A child who receives a negative test result may return to program once they are feeling better and their symptoms are improving.

• congested/runny nose, vomiting/nausea/ diarrhea, headache, sore throat, fatigue/muscle ache/malaise

You may find more details about our policies and procedures in Infection Control Policy related to COVID 19, located on our website.

As always, we work very closely with public health, the school boards and our schools to maintain the highest measures of safety while allowing children to engage, play and learn.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the head educator or SAC supervisor of your program. You may reach Bev at bev.blakely@eo.ymca.ca and April at april.kirkpatrick@eo.ymca.ca.

Sincerely,

Rob Adams                                                                                     Jill MacDonald
CEO, YMCA of Eastern Ontario                                                 Director, Operations Childcare