Last week, my two-year-old niece was sent home from daycare for having a runny nose — a sin that would otherwise be commonplace on a windy winter’s day.

The daycare centre instructed my sister she would need to produce a medical certificate ‘clearing’ my niece of COVID-19 before she would be allowed to return to daycare.

My sister stopped her work to collect my niece before going to the local medical centre and waiting for an appointment with a general practitioner.

The GP did not recommend a COVID-19 test and wrote a letter encouraging the daycare centre to allow my niece to return.