*FEATUREDNEWS

COVID hits Jesse Ketchum centre for essential workers’ families

Seven staff and children at Jesse Ketchum Early Learning and Child Care Centre in the Yorkville area have been tested for COVID-19, with three of them already receiving positive test results, the city has announced.

The city has suspended child care services for two weeks at the centre, at 7 Berryman St. near Davenport Road, one of seven centres set up in Toronto to care for children of essential and  critical services workers.

A city media release on Tuesday revealed three staff at Jesse Ketchum had tested positive for the virus, while two other staff and two children were awaiting test results.

“The centre will undergo a deep cleaning and will only reopen once approval is granted by Toronto Public Health,” according to the release.

Staff and the 58 children attending the care centre since it opened April 21 are being asked to stay home and not attend any other such child care centres during the 14-day shutdown.

Toronto’s other emergency child care centres, including the Danforth Early Learning and Child Care, 1125 Danforth Ave., which opened three days earlier than Jesse Ketchum, are to remain open.