Self-isolation rules differ in N.B. depending on where unvaccinated kids were exposed

Education Minister Dominic Cardy is hopeful that expanding the use of rapid tests to child-care facilities will help eliminate a double standard in the system.

Cardy confirmed that the exclusion policy for students differs depending on where they were exposed.

If unvaccinated students, including those under 12 who cannot be vaccinated, areexposed to a positive case of COVID-19 at school, they can show two negative rapid tests and return to classes.

But if the exposure happened at an after-school babysitter, for example, they automatically have to self-isolate for two weeks and aren't eligible for rapid testing.

That's the scenario that Laurie Racine, a mother from Dieppe, finds herself in after her nine-year-old daughter was exposed at daycare.

When Racine called her daughter's school, she was told the kits are reserved for students who were exposed to active cases in school.

Racine told Radio-Canada she would like to see the provincial government expand the eligibility criteria for the rapid screening program to exposures outside school.

Cardy said the difference exists because child-care facilities are privately run businesses in most cases.

He said he understands the frustration of parents whose children may have been exposed at such a location.

"They're privately run businesses in most cases in some cases, non-profits. But they're not public institutions in the way that a court or a school or a hospital is."

Cardy said there are "significant issues" with sharing data "in between and across" private businesses, comparedwith publicly run institutions.

He said the system currently being used for outside-of-school exposures, includingat child-care facilities, is thesame one that was used in the school system before rapid tests became widely available.

"And as much as that's frustrating, it's the same system that we had in place in the K-12 schools just a couple of weeks ago," said Cardy.

Once the rapid tests became widely available in the school system two weeks ago more than 10,000 kits with several tests inside have been distributed it allowed students to get back to class more quickly.

Unvaccinated students now only have to self-isolate until they've produced two negative tests a day apart. Then, unless otherwise advised by Public Health, students can return to school and submit their rapid test results daily for the period of time determined by health officials.

Cardy said the goal is to expand to early child-care centres and other locations as quickly as possible. He said there is no timeline for doing so, but hoped to have more news on that in the next couple of weeks.

"We knew we were going to do it this way that it was going to be done in phases to make sure the program was sustainable and didn't crack under pressure as soon as it was rolled out. But so far, after two weeks, it's going well and we're looking for ways to be able to expand it and modify it to make it work even better."

Cardysaid there was the added inequity of the availability ofrapid testing kits. He said not everyone has access to them, so making them a requirement wouldn't be fair across the board.

"We want to have a clear process that builds the rapid testing program up in the K-12 schools, shows that it works, then adds to it and then expands it beyond K-12 to other parts of the province," said Cardy.