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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The solution is to end the ridiculous 14 day quarantine for children under 5. There have been numerous instances in our daycare (masked 2-5 year olds) where a child went home with covid-symptoms and waited for a PCR test for 5-7 days while the rest of the class continued and the PCR came back positive and the class started quarantining on day 5-7. Do you know how many times someone got covid? Zero. I would be very surprised if there was any "science" that said 14 day resulted in fewer infections that 10 day or 5 day or test to stay. Two years into this our politicians continue to make fear based decisions about young children.[/quote]

Who has mandatory quarantines for kids under 5? They’re not required in Maryland or Montgomery County. Quarantines are only required for outbreaks.

Yes, many providers are refusing to meet their obligations under their enrollment agreements, but don’t blame that on the heath regulations.[/quote]

Our daycare has shut down entire classrooms repeatedly for single cases (mostly teachers, although I believe there have been 3 children with positive cases in the past 22 months). There's been no spread amongst the children or staff.  Classes were shut down for 14 days at first, but now that is down to 10 days.  We've been told that this is the instruction provided to daycare from the health department.  We are in Loudoun.
Something has to give with this.  We had an outbreak of RSV last summer (5 toddlers in one room), and no one shut down for that.[/quote]

I’m not as familiar with Virginia regulations, but I know there are no requirements for quarantines in Maryland/MoCo for single cases. Providers still suggesting   quarantines are required, but that simply isn’t true.  I strongly suspect that's the case in Virginia. The health department likely doesn't have any authority unless there is an outbreak involving multiple, epidemiologically-linked cases. And the state/county child care regulations likely just say providers must follow the legal orders from health departments.[/quote]

This is OP. The daycare is in Montgomery County. One child has covid, no teachers or other students. Health Department apparently advised them to stay closed for what amounts to 10 week days. I'm tempted to call BS that the center director actually talked to the health department if what you're saying is true.[/quote]

Let me try to explain the process and legal/regulatory requirements here.

Child care centers are required to follow state and local health regulations. At this point, there are no specific health regulations for covid, other than a requirement to report the case to the local health department. The local health department has the authority to order quarantines (or other health measures), but only in the case of an outbreak. In Montgomery County, an outbreak is defined as 3 epidemiologically linked cases in a single classroom, or 5 linked cases throughout a center, over a 14-day period.

When there's a case, the child care center calls a DHHS number and leaves a message with an operator telling them which center they're with and the number of cases. At some point, the center should get a call back, but it might not be for many days later. If the center reported 3 or more cases, DHHS will open an investigation and report it to the state Department of Health. In those cases, the center should get a call back fairly quickly. In those instances, the health department will almost certainly instruct the center to close the relevant classroom. If the center refuses, they would likely get a letter ordering them to shut down the classroom. If they continue to refuse, this would be interpreted as a violation of child care regulations by the local licensing office.

If there was just a single case, then the center might not hear back from DHHS for days or weeks. Someone in the contract tracing office will likely recommend some sort of quarantine. The specific recommendation depends on the person you're talking to, since they may or may not tell you about shortened quarantine options or the option to skip quarantine in favor of symptom monitoring. Regardless, these are merely recommendations, not orders, and providers are not required to follow them for licensing purposes.

Does that make sense? I mean, obviously the process is absurd and doesn't make any sense, but did the description itself make sense?[/quote]

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