Quebec Floats Idea of Letting Kids Get COVID-19 to Build up Wider Immunity in Society

Horacio Arruda, Quebec director of National Public Health responds to reporters during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, at the legislature in Quebec City, on April 16, 2020. Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press

The Quebec government has suggested that reopening schools and daycares could be a way to both kick-start its economy and slow the transmission of COVID-19 in the province.

Quebec’s public health director, Horacio Arruda, told a news conference on April 10 it was “very excessively rare” for children to develop severe symptoms from COVID-19. Allowing them to catch the virus and become immunized would help the wider society, he said.