Notice of Risk from Ottawa Public Health:
When children from multiple families attend a child care or recreational program, there is an increased risk of the Covid-19 virus coming into the program. Children who are infected with the Covid-19 virus are more likely than adults to have very mild infections or to have no symptoms at all, but these children can still transmit the infection to other children and to adults. This means that children can bring home an infection acquired in a child care or recreational program and put other persons at risk. Even if a program has a screening process to help detect infections when there are symptoms, this screening process will not detect infected children or adults who do not have symptoms at the time of screening.
The risk of serious Covid-19 infection increases with age, which older staff should consider in terms of risk to themselves, particularly if working in programs with children from multiple families. This caution also applies to those persons of any age who have chronic medical conditions that may put them at increased risk for serious illness with Covid-19 infection.