Are playgrounds safe now?

[Anonymous]

The local playground by my house in an area with very low infection rate? Sure.

The mixing bowl of Clemyjontri? No way.

[Anonymous]

My kids are up at 6am. It’s hot as hell with the humidity these days so we head to the playground by 7, multiple different playgrounds within 10 minutes of our home and we are always the only people there at that hour. I’m not concerned with the equipment because it’s outside and probably has been at least 8 hours since anyone else was there. We usually stay for a couple hours. Maybe one other family appears around 8ish. More people come around 9 and we head home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The local playground by my house in an area with very low infection rate? Sure.

The mixing bowl of Clemyjontri? No way.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The local playground by my house in an area with very low infection rate? Sure.

The mixing bowl of Clemyjontri? No way.

+1

Agree. We also go to the Reston community playgrounds. (we live in Reston.) we'll go if there's one other family, but not if it's packed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would go when no one else is there, and sanitize my kids' hands afterward. Spread from surfaces is not a major source of transmission.

From limited contact tracing we have, we don't see much surface transmission. But kids have been pretty isolated, and adults have been drilled to sanitize their hands and not touch their face.

Once kids start interacting on shared surfaces, we will better understand the real risk. I do think that we won't see the virus living for 3 days on metal in the sun; but on the shady side of the monkey bars? It could definitely last at least a day.

The risk is a weighted combination of how widespread it is in your community (likelihood that an infected kid was ON the playground at all), how soon after you interact with the same equipment for any shaded portions, and the likelihood your kid will touch their face after touching that surface.

Right now, we believe from our somewhat limited testing that it is not widespread, but once it starts increasing than the likelihood that someone touched the equipment right before your kid goes way up.

Then it comes down to if your kid is really good about not touching their face. If they touch surfaces, don't touch face and then sanitize after, it is very low risk.

For me, my kids can't be trusted to not wipe their nose or rub their face while playing, and since we are high risk, we are treating everyone as potentially infected, so the risk combination isn't great for a shared playground.

If you are young parents in good health and not too worried about COVID (you go grocery shopping, get takeout, maybe dine outside at restaurant, have socially distanced meetups with friends), then playgrounds are likely very similar risk, maybe even lower risk than grocery shopping for instance. If everyone is wearing masks at the playground, that would help a great deal -- provided kids aren't fiddling with them all the time which may actually increase risk.

So not an easy answer, but on the spectrum of risk, its not far above other common activities people are doing.

One more point, I am very skeptical of the low risk of surface transmission, since they CONTINUE to drill in "WASH YOUR HANDS".

There is no evidence that surface transmission is a significant risk with this particular virus. But we don't know that it's zero risk, and washing your hands frequently is just basic good hygiene, and will certainly help prevent other diseases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would go when no one else is there, and sanitize my kids' hands afterward. Spread from surfaces is not a major source of transmission.

From limited contact tracing we have, we don't see much surface transmission. But kids have been pretty isolated, and adults have been drilled to sanitize their hands and not touch their face.

Once kids start interacting on shared surfaces, we will better understand the real risk. I do think that we won't see the virus living for 3 days on metal in the sun; but on the shady side of the monkey bars? It could definitely last at least a day.

The risk is a weighted combination of how widespread it is in your community (likelihood that an infected kid was ON the playground at all), how soon after you interact with the same equipment for any shaded portions, and the likelihood your kid will touch their face after touching that surface.

Right now, we believe from our somewhat limited testing that it is not widespread, but once it starts increasing than the likelihood that someone touched the equipment right before your kid goes way up.

Then it comes down to if your kid is really good about not touching their face. If they touch surfaces, don't touch face and then sanitize after, it is very low risk.

For me, my kids can't be trusted to not wipe their nose or rub their face while playing, and since we are high risk, we are treating everyone as potentially infected, so the risk combination isn't great for a shared playground.

If you are young parents in good health and not too worried about COVID (you go grocery shopping, get takeout, maybe dine outside at restaurant, have socially distanced meetups with friends), then playgrounds are likely very similar risk, maybe even lower risk than grocery shopping for instance. If everyone is wearing masks at the playground, that would help a great deal -- provided kids aren't fiddling with them all the time which may actually increase risk.

So not an easy answer, but on the spectrum of risk, its not far above other common activities people are doing.

One more point, I am very skeptical of the low risk of surface transmission, since they CONTINUE to drill in "WASH YOUR HANDS".

It’s not zero risk. If a COVID positive kid wipes snot on the monkey bars, and your kids comes up right behind them, gets their still wet snot on his hands and wipes his nose...

And...hand washing will always be important in not spreading communicable diseases.

[Anonymous]

Good Lord you people are living your life in fear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The local playground by my house in an area with very low infection rate? Sure.

The mixing bowl of Clemyjontri? No way.

Op here. I was going to check out the playground next to the great falls library but decided not to go. My 3yo has not been to a playground since March and we are doing just fine.

[Anonymous]

Playgrounds are as safe as they always were, which is to say, it depends on the rate of infection in your community, how many people are there at the same time (or just before you), whether or not you can maintain distance, what other precautions you and others are taking, etc. If anything, they might be more dangerous because the coronavirus is more widespread.

Is that safe enough for you to go? The risk is relatively low, but it's not zero, so you have to decide for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is it that they weren’t safe 2-3 months ago because coronavirus germs could live for days and now it is ok for kids to play on a playground that is never cleaned?

I took my 3yo to frying pan park last week and saw kids playing on the playground. We only walked around the farm and did not go on the playground. Also went to great country farms a few weeks ago and did not let kids play on equipment or jump on the jumping pillow.

I would like to let my 3yo play on a playground again, maybe early this morning at around 9.

Please tell me that these outdoor high touch play areas are ok even if never cleaned. Ugh. I hate Covid.

Take a container of sanitizing wipes and clean a swing. At this point, that’s all I will do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good Lord you people are living your life in fear.

Cue the moron who thinks that modifying any behavior during a pandemic that has killed 140,000 people in four months somehow makes you crazy and fearful and not just a sensible, thinking human being. PP, does it make you mad that you’re not allowed in Walmart without a mask now? Need some new magahats?

[Anonymous]

You know what I was just thinking this morning? I'm so pissed off we stayed off of playground equipment back in March when there were like 3 cases of covid in our 2 million+ people city. I get it (I think) now that there are 5000 cases, but we've wasted months doing abso-effing-lutely nothing fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know what I was just thinking this morning? I'm so pissed off we stayed off of playground equipment back in March when there were like 3 cases of covid in our 2 million+ people city. I get it (I think) now that there are 5000 cases, but we've wasted months doing abso-effing-lutely nothing fun.

Yeah. Your/ our elected officials were supposed to use that time to build out adequate testing capabilities, contract tracing, and PPE manufacturing on a large scale (eg N95 masks for all) so that cases never reached the levels they are current at. Instead they did nothing, and here we are.