COVINGTON, Ga. — A local child care center was shut down after two employees tested positive for COVID-19.

Administrators for KC's 24-hour Child Care Center in Covington, said the facility would be closed for deep cleaning and reopen Sept. 28.

Administrators said two employees’ COVID-19 tests were confirmed Friday, Sept. 11. Once the child care center was notified, parents were also made aware and the facility was closed thereafter.

Administrators said the child care center had been following the required guidelines to help slow the spread of disease.

Hours after The Covington News initially spoke with KC’s administrators, an employee and parent of a child being cared for at the facility said the entire truth had not been told.

Destiny Smith said not only two employees had tested positive, but her 2-month-old son had also contracted the novel coronavirus. She said he was briefly hospitalized but later released Sunday, Sept. 13, and is recovering.

The mother said she was awaiting her COVID-19 test results at the time of publication.

Smith also said not every staff member was wearing masks and social distancing. 

In following up with child care center, an administrator told The News masks were not mandatory because “they can be hazardous to small children” if ever to get in their possession, citing the risk of choking or cutting off circulation to a limb, which falls in line with the CDC’s guidelines.

The CDC recommends that everyone 2 years and older wear a mask, but “masks should not be put on babies or children younger than 2 because of the danger of suffocation. Children younger than 2 years of age are listed as an exception as well as anyone who has trouble breathing or is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.”

Administrators also refuted any claims that no guidelines were being practiced. The child care center has been following all mandated state regulations concerning COVID-19. Teachers and administrators have being checking temperatures at the door each day and regulating how parents drop off and pick up their kids, administrators said.

“We’re following all the guidelines that we’re supposed to be following,” an administrator said.

KC's 24-hour Child Care Center is located at 5119 Hwy 278 NE in Covington.