Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Wellness Wednesday!

 COVID-19: Close Contacts

As numbers of COVID-19 cases increase across the state, the chances of knowing someone with the virus has gone up. If your child had close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, please let your school nurse know as soon as possible.

What does it mean to be a close contact?
The CDC defines a close contact as someone who spent a total of 15 minutes (over the course of 24 hours) within 6 feet of each other during the contagious period.
Contagious period: Two days before the person started to feel sick or two days before a person without symptoms was tested.
What is required of a close contact?
Close contacts need to quarantine, stay home without visitors, for 14 days after last contact with the infected person. If you live with someone, you continue to have close contact with the infected person. Therefore, household contacts stay home/quarantine during the illness period (usually 10 days) and THEN another 14 days.
A close contact should get tested (PCR or NAAT) as soon as possible. This is done to determine if other people/close contacts in our community need to quarantine as your close contacts—which slows the spread of this disease. 

Please continue reviewing any sick symptoms with your child daily prior to sending him/her to school. THANK YOU!

Written by: Christine Flynn RN 

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