15 March 2020
Éric Blackburn, the Deputy Minister of Education, sent a letter to school board administrators concerning COVID-19.
14-Day Quarantine
The letter states that “From now on (March 12, 2020), if a staff member of your establishment returns from a stay outside Canada, you must take the necessary measures to ensure that this person respects the obligatory isolation period of 14 days, as prescribed by Santé publique. The salary of the person must be maintained during this period of two weeks.”
The directives specify that this obligatory isolation does not apply to “people who have traveled during previous days, especially during the spring break which ended on March 8”. However, these people should closely monitor their symptoms.
No More than 250 People
The Premier of Quebec has prohibited “all indoor gatherings of 250 or more people in one room.” Specifically prohibited examples include “activities organized in a cafeteria, an agora, a classroom, a sports center, etc. It is the responsibility of each organization to modify their normal educational, administrative or recreational practices and to adapt them to the new requirements (modification of schedules, double meal breaks, alternative training methods, etc.).”
To this end, several school boards decided to shut down their establishments on Friday, March 13, in order to resolve these logistical problems.