Some child care facilities in the area are allowed to open their doors again.

As a measure to stop the spread of COVID-19, all child care facilities in the province were shut down last week.

The provincial government is allowing a small group of daycares and out-of-school programs to operate again, but only parents who are core service workers can take advantage. Access will be prioritized to health care practitioners and critical infrastructure workers. Any additional space will then be available to first responders and others.

Those eligible to send their children to the newly re-opened centres will be notified by their employer.

The two centres that have been selected in Fort Saskatchewan are The Treehouse Daycare and the Boys and Girls Club of Fort Saskatchewan.

“It feels good to get some of your staff back to work. This is a really hard time on everybody,” said Lisa Makin, owner of The Treehouse Daycare.

The child care centres that are reopening did not apply; they were chosen by the provincial government based on proximity to health care facilities and recommendations from their licensing officers.

Of course, there are additional health measures the daycares need to follow now.

“There’s strict guidelines around how many kids are allowed in a certain area and that includes the amount of staff members in that area. Just lots of regulations that we need to follow now and that helps keep our kids and our staff safe.”

The new required public health measures that centres have to follow include:

- A maximum program occupancy of 30 (staff and children) as long as they’re separated into separate classrooms and do not congregate

- The maximum capacity of any room at one time is ten

- Any child, staff member or parent must not enter the child care space if they are sick, even if symptoms resemble a mild cold

- Children’s temperatures must be checked daily before coming to the program

- Child care programs must adhere to strict hand washing guidelines

- Programs must engage in frequent thorough cleaning each day as per the Alberta Health Services guidelines

- No non-essential visitors and no volunteers are allowed at the program

- A daily health questionnaire must be filled out before entry

- Parents are asked to provide their own food for their child, otherwise, strict food handling measures apply

For now, only two child care centres are re-opening in Fort Saskatchewan but if there’s a need for more, health officials will consider opening another.