Kids Exposed to Covid. Now What?

[JumpyTheFrog]

On Sunday the neighbor came to the pool with us. Sunday night he started to feel sick, and this morning his mom texted to say he had a positive Covid test yesterday. I have some of those OTC at home tests. What day do I have my kids use them? I am vaccinated, but they and DH aren't. If I understand correctly I don't have to quarantine unless I show symptoms. What is the minimal quarantine time for them? I need a minimalist plan because DH, who was initially very Covid cautious in spring of 2020 has been listening to his dad saying over and over that "It's just a flu." If one of the kids gets it, DH won't agree to quarantine because he's going to "live his life" as long as he doesn't feel sick. In other words, I won't be able to get the three of them to agree to staying home for two weeks if they are asymptomatic.

[HomeAgain]

IIRC, here it was 4-7 days before testing.

[ktgrok]

1 minute ago, JumpyTheFrog said:

On Sunday the neighbor came to the pool with us. Sunday night he started to feel sick, and this morning his mom texted to say he had a positive Covid test yesterday. I have some of those OTC at home tests. What day do I have my kids use them? I am vaccinated, but they and DH aren't. If I understand correctly I don't have to quarantine unless I show symptoms. What is the minimal quarantine time for them? I need a minimalist plan because DH, who was initially very Covid cautious in spring of 2020 has been listening to his dad saying over and over that "It's just a flu." If one of the kids gets it, DH won't agree to quarantine because he's going to "live his life" as long as he doesn't feel sick. In other words, I won't be able to get the three of them to agree to staying home for two weeks if they are asymptomatic.

Local public health authorities determine and establish the quarantine options for their jurisdictions. CDC currently recommends a quarantine period of 14 days. However, based on local circumstances and resources, the following options to shorten quarantine are acceptable alternatives.

• Quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.
  • With this strategy, residual post-quarantine transmission risk is estimated to be about 1% with an upper limit of about 10%.

• When diagnostic testing resources are sufficient and available (see bullet 3, below), then quarantine can end after Day 7 if a diagnostic specimen tests negative and if no symptoms were reported during daily monitoring. The specimen may be collected and tested within 48 hours before the time of planned quarantine discontinuation (e.g., in anticipation of testing delays), but quarantine cannot be discontinued earlier than after Day 7.
  • With this strategy, the residual post-quarantine transmission risk is estimated to be about 5% with an upper limit of about 12%.

In both cases, additional criteria (e.g., continued symptom monitoring and masking through Day 14) must be met and are outlined in the full text.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/scientific-brief-options-to-reduce-quarantine.html

[bolt.]

Ideally, you would shut yourselves down for now, until you can get tested. (I don't know what day is currently most recommended.) Once you are tested, if you are each/all negative and also asymptomatic, you can carry on mostly normally if that's what you need to do -- but avoid things that are particularly risky (places with the elderly, places with the unvaccinated, crowded gatherings) if possible.

You can't do much for a grown adult making his own decisions, but the kids you do have the ability to put your foot down. Try to be clear on the values you are communicating in your limits: that being a silent carrier is unlikely with no symptoms and a negative test -- so most things are fine -- but a few things are too risky to do even though you are almost sure they are fine.

For myself, I would limit myself as much as I reasonably could after an exposure. I wouldn't put that on kids/teens or a spouse, but I would be living that value myself. I'm committed to not being a link in anybody's transmission chain if I can possibly do so.

Edited September 14, 2021 by bolt.

[JumpyTheFrog]

I can get them to agree to all stay home for probably 5-7 days, but unlikely to get more than that unless someone is sick.

It looks like the CDC says you can test on day 5 and be done on day 7 if the test is negative and nobody has symptoms. Does the day of exposure count as day 1? Since they were exposed Sunday we could test Thursday? I would have them go get the free PCR tests (to save the at-home tests for when someone has symptoms but no known exposures).

[Spryte]

31 minutes ago, JumpyTheFrog said:

I can get them to agree to all stay home for probably 5-7 days, but unlikely to get more than that unless someone is sick.

It looks like the CDC says you can test on day 5 and be done on day 7 if the test is negative and nobody has symptoms. Does the day of exposure count as day 1? Since they were exposed Sunday we could test Thursday? I would have them go get the free PCR tests (to save the at-home tests for when someone has symptoms but no known exposures).

I was recently exposed and had to quarantine. My understanding is that a negative PCR test on day 5 or later means you can stop quarantining on … I think it was day 7, if you are vaccinated. I ended up testing with a rapid test on Day 3, PCR on Day 6, results and out of quarantine on Day 8 (I was vaccinated and masked, so it was an abundance of caution for my unvaxxed kid). But even after you are out, the recommendation was to mask indoors in public (or in my case, with my unvaxxed kids) for the full 14 days, even if vaccinated. I don’t recall the recommendations for unvaxxed people. 

I am vaccinated, but followed a hybrid of the CDC recommendations and our local health department recommendations. The local recommendations were a bit less than the CDC’s. Definitely check yours.

I counted Day 1 as the day after exposure. Like 24 hours after exposure it’s been one full day. Or if you are moving squares on a game board - you don’t count “start” as one, you know?

Edited September 14, 2021 by Spryte
Autocorrect really wants me to type an “abundance of wine” instead of an abundance of caution! 🤣

[matrips]

7 hours ago, JumpyTheFrog said:

Does the day of exposure count as day 1?

No, day of exposure is day zero.

you could test on Friday.

[Hilltopmom]

Here if you are quarantined by the health dept for an exposure you are expected to stay home for 10 days regardless of symptoms. It’s NOT optional. You can test on day 5-6 but that does not get you out of quarantine. If you actually test positive, your quarantine is checked on by the state troopers to be sure you are at home.

[BlsdMama]

If it’s self comforting, I think it’s unlikely all three will be a symptomatic if they caught it. At this point, I know a lot of folks who have had it and, even when lightly symptomatic, none were asymptomatic. I can think of one person who likely had it but didn’t tests positive twice. Hopefully, if they get it, your dh gets moderate symptoms that encourage him to stay home. 

[kiwik]

22 hours ago, Hilltopmom said:

Here if you are quarantined by the health dept for an exposure you are expected to stay home for 10 days regardless of symptoms. It’s NOT optional. You can test on day 5-6 but that does not get you out of quarantine. If you actually test positive, your quarantine is checked on by the state troopers to be sure you are at home.

Yeah here it is 2 weeks for the entire household and the infected kid and his family would me moved to a quarantine facility.