How do most working families take 3.5 weeks off of work to quarantine? I feel like a lot of families would not be able to pay rent or buy food if they did that.
I would keep them separated as much as I could for now and then decide how to proceed based off the quarantine requirements for daycare.
And ughhh. I am sorry you are dealing with this.
At the time, we were both working from home. If we couldn’t, both our employers had covid policies that included when we’d have to use our own PTO for quarantine versus using leave from the employer, so we would have been okay. It also helped that one of those weeks included a weeklong school break (for DH) and I already had vacation time booked that week.
Is it 24 days b/c you assume the person with covid is contagious for 10 days and then you need to quarantine for 14 days after that to see if you test positive?
We (very thankfully) haven't had to worry about this yet but the thought of doing it with 4 kids at some point is terrifying.
Sorry you’re going through this, I know what a nightmare it is. I have 4 kids and my oldest was positive back in Feb. No one else in the house got it, and we found out about her exposure pretty late, so she was definitely around everyone for like 6 days. Even though I was vaccinated I still had to quarantine for 10 days after her quarantine ended, so it was like 21 days total and suuuucked. Luckily I was working from home, but still.
Post by lolalolalola on Aug 8, 2021 20:39:17 GMT -5
I would try. If you’re unable, your other child should be quarantined for 24 days per our health authorities. Good luck. I had a 24 day quarantine earlier this year when my dd had covid and we just didn’t have any other choice.
I'm going to give the anecdote that my oldest niece contracted covid in the fall, the family ate together, hung out, went into the hot tub for 2-3 days before she was positive and as soon as she got a positive they quarantined her to her room and nobody else tested positive after 3-4 tests so it's entirely possible to keep it isolated to one person (I think there have been a few other posters here that have had the same thing happen) . Now the challenge for you would be ages, honestly I would try to keep them apart, wear masks in the house etc.
I think it was much easier to stop the spread within a household with the original covid virus. Delta is six times more contagious and people are infectious earlier. This is also anecdotal, but I've heard a ton of recent stories where one person in a household tested positive and then everyone else did too.
It's still smart to isolate and wear masks if only to lower the potential exposure. But man, as someone with young kids who share a room, I don't know logistically how you make that work.
I'm going to give the anecdote that my oldest niece contracted covid in the fall, the family ate together, hung out, went into the hot tub for 2-3 days before she was positive and as soon as she got a positive they quarantined her to her room and nobody else tested positive after 3-4 tests so it's entirely possible to keep it isolated to one person (I think there have been a few other posters here that have had the same thing happen) . Now the challenge for you would be ages, honestly I would try to keep them apart, wear masks in the house etc.
I think it was much easier to stop the spread within a household with the original covid virus. Delta is six times more contagious and people are infectious earlier. This is also anecdotal, but I've heard a ton of recent stories where one person in a household tested positive and then everyone else did too.
It's still smart to isolate and wear masks if only to lower the potential exposure. But man, as someone with young kids who share a room, I don't know logistically how you make that work.
I’ve seen this anecdotally as well. Everyone who has had covid, the entire family has gotten it.
I'm in the UK so we've had Delta longer and anyone who catches it the whole family gets it - usually one after another. So a friend had her daughter with it, then she tested positive on day 10, then her other kid got it on her day 10 so they were in the house for a long time. Depending on the situation, I doubt I would isolate anyone in the house from each other as we are all on top of each other all the time so it would be too late, I'd just have to assume we'd all catch it. I hope you and your kids are all okay!
Update! Ok so all test results are in and I talked to their daycare and the dept of health in RI today. So myself, DH and DD1 all tested negative. Because DH and I are fully vaccinated and tested negative they said we do not have to quarantine at all but they recommend we mask up if we go out. We aren’t going out for anything and have delivery set for everything but good to know? For DD1 the dept of health said they recommend masking at home for her, then she has to retest 5 days after DD2s 10 days are up, so 15 days. Then once that test is negative she is released back into the wild. I am shocked she is negative. We are masking indoors, extra hand washing, trying to give space but not totally separating them and will do the extra time with DD1 and hope her retest is negative. Pending how long her results take she will do 16/17 days and it’s not a full 24 (according to RI dept of health and our daycare). She is missing Kindergarten screening due to this but the K school year doesn’t start till Sept 10 so I’m happy it doesn’t interfere with the school year at all for either of them.
Sorry you're dealing with this! One reason to try to minimize contact is that exposure to a larger viral load can lead to a worse case of covid, more severe symptoms, etc. So I would try to wear masks in the house, not have them sleep together, etc. I get that it may be too difficult completely isolate with young kids, but I would at least do masks and not sleeping together to try to reduce the viral load everyone is getting exposed to.
Sorry you're dealing with this! One reason to try to minimize contact is that exposure to a larger viral load can lead to a worse case of covid, more severe symptoms, etc. So I would try to wear masks in the house, not have them sleep together, etc. I get that it may be too difficult completely isolate with young kids, but I would at least do masks and not sleeping together to try to reduce the viral load everyone is getting exposed to.
This makes sense! I am trying to spend 95% of our time including meals outside and masking up inside - it’s a good idea I will have one of them shack up in the guest room too
My younger kid is a little younger than yours, but our older ones are the same age. Last winter DD (5) was exposed at school (although she never tested pos), and we tried to keep them separated while she was quarantining, before we knew for sure. Honestly it was totally hopeless. It might go better with 4/5 than with 2/5, and in summer so you can go outside vs. winter, but I am just not sure how it would be attainable within the same house. If H and I divided the kids up, 2 yo DS would not understand or respect the division in the slightest, neither of my kids would be able to resist MOMMY!!1! on occasion, and 5 yo DD wouldn't be able to stay away from her brother. So it would be a total fail. I would probably not try all that hard, knowing it was so futile. Especially if my kids had shared a room at night right up to the pos result and symptoms, meaning the other one probably was already exposed.
Good luck. I hope it goes quickly and you and your H don't develop symptoms.
Update! Ok so all test results are in and I talked to their daycare and the dept of health in RI today. So myself, DH and DD1 all tested negative. Because DH and I are fully vaccinated and tested negative they said we do not have to quarantine at all but they recommend we mask up if we go out. We aren’t going out for anything and have delivery set for everything but good to know? For DD1 the dept of health said they recommend masking at home for her, then she has to retest 5 days after DD2s 10 days are up, so 15 days. Then once that test is negative she is released back into the wild. I am shocked she is negative. We are masking indoors, extra hand washing, trying to give space but not totally separating them and will do the extra time with DD1 and hope her retest is negative. Pending how long her results take she will do 16/17 days and it’s not a full 24 (according to RI dept of health and our daycare). She is missing Kindergarten screening due to this but the K school year doesn’t start till Sept 10 so I’m happy it doesn’t interfere with the school year at all for either of them.
The *only* good part of testing positive for Covid meant our kid didn’t have to quarantine for 90 days if she was exposed again (at least that’s how it is in NY). Her class actually did have another positive like 88 days later and my DD wasn’t exposed, but the girl who gave it to her was, and she did not have to quarantine with everyone else. She was put on official quarantine by the state but they lifted it once they verified she had been positive within 90 days.
From this: DD1 should isolate for 10 days since symptoms started (so 10 days from last Thursday). She can then be around others.
DD2 should quarantine for 14 days from last contact with DD1 (presumably from day 10 of DD1 isolation). With Health Department okay, can reduce to 10 days (no test) or 7 days (with negative test after day 5).
But…it says contact local health department for additional guidance so it is still the Wild Wild West.
Our state health department and local had confirmed they were following the reduced quarantine times.
Pretty good so far! DD2 has made what seems like a full recovery and hasn’t had any symptoms in 2 days. We are spending 99% of our time outside to mitigate risk for DD1. I actually took them both to get retested this morning, I want to check and make sure DD1 isn’t positive one more time just in case, I would rather know now vs when I do her 15 day retest and I ended up tested DD2 at the same time. It won’t change our quarantine timeline but if DD2 now shows negative I can stop being as nervous about her giving it to her sister.
Going a bit stir crazy and wishing we could go to the beach but making do with the sprinkler and slip and slide. It’s HOT this week!!
From this: DD1 should isolate for 10 days since symptoms started (so 10 days from last Thursday). She can then be around others.
DD2 should quarantine for 14 days from last contact with DD1 (presumably from day 10 of DD1 isolation). With Health Department okay, can reduce to 10 days (no test) or 7 days (with negative test after day 5).
But…it says contact local health department for additional guidance so it is still the Wild Wild West.
Our state health department and local had confirmed they were following the reduced quarantine times.
Yea when I talked to our local state health dept it was the shorter 15 days with retest for our non infected child. I think the full 24 was from before tests were super available and they didn’t have as much info?