News Release
January 4, 2021

Two City of Toronto employees working at Flemingdon Early Learning & Child Care Centre and two children enrolled at the centre tested positive for COVID-19 during the recent holiday break. Following public health guidance and health and safety procedures, the City-operated child care centre will be temporarily closed while staff members and children self-isolate or monitor for symptoms as a precaution and the rooms are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.

Families with children at the centre were advised of these precautions on Saturday, January 2. The centre will reopen following Toronto Public Health’s advice. The City is advising the public of these cases in the interest of transparency.

Toronto Children’s Services has been carefully following Provincial and Toronto Public Health safety measures, which help to ensure that should there be an outbreak in one program, there is little risk to other programs at that centre. These include: smaller group sizes where the same group of children and caregivers remain together for the duration of care; daily screening of children and staff members; children do not share items, such as crayons and toys, but have their own while at the program; increased disinfection practices and limiting the number of people in the centres.

Flemingdon Early Learning & Child Care Centre is currently running programs for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, with 23 children and up to 18 full and part-time child care staff members assigned to the centre. This centre is not one of the child care centres currently designated to provide emergency child care for essential workers at this time.

Globally, COVID-19 outbreaks continue to occur in group settings, including early learning programs, despite practices in place to help stop the spread of the virus. As such, self-isolation has become a normal operating practice in child care settings. Currently, any incidences in the child care sector are reported to the Province of Ontario and posted on their website, along with outbreaks occurring in schools and long-term care homes.

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Media Relations