News & Blog

October 26th, 2020:

When and how long to quarantine due to COVID-19 can get confusing! And it seems to change week by week as new information comes out. We have certainly had a lot of questions from parents, schools, and other institutions in regards to length of quarantine - for that reason we keep a centralized document that we update regularly to make sure all of our staff at both of our locations are using the most up to date information.

So let's look at a few scenarios:

1. If you test positive for COVID-19 you need to quarantine at home until either:

     10 days after your positive test (only if you have no symptoms), or

     10 days after your first day symptoms, AND your fever has resolved (without medication), AND your COVID symptoms are improving

And for school-aged children, the Arkansas Health Department or your child's school will need to "release" your child to return to school.

2. A lot of confusion has come up lately about this next scenario - what if your child had COVID and plays sports? Well, the health department has specific guidelines for "return to sports" post-COVID. Although the guidelines can get complicated, at minimum your child can't be cleared for sports until 10 days after their positive COVID-19 test if they had no symptoms or, if they did have symptoms, 14 days AFTER their symptoms have resolved. And if your child has or had some heart related symptoms they will likely need a more extensive work-up.

We have had to correct some school officials and health department officials on this point (after confirming with the Health Department's physicians). Athletes can return to school after 10 days of quarantine (plus IMPROVING symptoms and no fever) but can't return to sports until their symptoms have been RESOLVED for 14 days.

3. What if your child was exposed at school via a close contact (less than 6 feet for more than 15 minutes)? Your child would then need to quarantine for 14 days starting from the day after their last day of exposure - in other words they would need to quarantine without exposure to someone who has coronavirus for a full 14 days.

Remember (and this is an area I have heard multiple schools get incorrect) - if your child is exposed to COVID-19 and then tests negative, your child still needs to quarantine for the full 14 days as some patients take longer to turn positive.

4. Finally, what if someone in the home has COVID-19? If this person can be isolated from others in the home then everyone's first day of their 14-day quarantine would be the day after the person who has COVID-19 goes into isolation. However, for many families being isolated in the home away from family members or having the rest of the family go live somewhere else temporarily simply isn't an option.

So what should you do in that situation? The entire family (COVID positive person and exposed family members) would need to quarantine at home and those exposed would need to quarantine an additional 14 days after the COVID-19 positive person leaves their quarantine. So, for example, if Dad has COVID-19 (positive test or first day of symptoms) on Oct 1st then, assuming he can leave quarantine after 10 days, he would leave quarantine on Oct 10th. Mom and Junior would quarantine with Dad (isolate as best you can!) but would need to quarantine an additional 14 days (Oct 11th - Oct 25th) since their LAST day of exposure was the day Dad's quarantine ended (so their first day of exposure-quarantine would be the day after Dad leaves quarantine). So Mom and Junior would quarantine from Oct 1st through Oct 25th.

The CDC has example scenarios as well:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quarantine.html

There are many nuances to the above scenarios. Our nurses always have the latest information available to them and they know when to find one of the doctors when they are not sure what the best recommendation is - so feel free to call The Children's Clinic of Conway and Greenbrier if you have any questions about current COVID policies! We are open Monday through Friday and Saturday mornings and are happy to help and advise!

Chris Killingsworth, MD

The Children's Clinic of Conway and Greenbrier

September 8th, 2020:

Fall is approaching! That means falling leaves, halloween candy on all the store shelves, and flu vaccines. The southern hemisphere had a relatively mild flu season, due in part to compliance with social distancing, facial masks, and frequent hand washing. Certainly we hope we will have a similar "light" flu season as well. So why is it still important to get a flu vaccine?

Every year flu causes severe illness for patients of all age groups, many requiring hospitilzation. During the 2019/2020 flu season, 118 Arkansans (mostly older patients) died from the flu. (For context, COVID, over 6 months, has caused the death of 882 Arkansans). Many health experts fear that COVID will have a similar rise in infection rate during the winter months like the flu. So, potentially, as flu infections begin to rise, so too could COVID cases rise.

We all hope we will have an effective COVID vaccine soon. But until that time our best defense includes social distancing and wearing face masks when out in public spaces or in groups. Luckily for flu, we have a vaccine that is proven effective (although, admittedly, it is not 100%). Strong flu shot adherence this season will reduce the number of people getting the flu and therefore reduce the hospitilzations due to flu, preserving capacity for potential COVID patients.

Many parents tell me they recall a year that they received the flu vaccine but "still got the flu". I acknowledge that that happens; however, research has shown (and my own observations from seeing kids has demonstrated) that those patients who received the flu vaccine but still get the flu are FAR less sick than if they had not received the flu vaccine at all.

So The Children's Clinic of Conway and Greenbrier recommends everyone get their flu vaccine - some schools are giving them, some pharmacies are giving them, and of course our friendly (and gentle) nurses are giving the flu vaccine as well. Every year the Killingsworth family goes in around September or October and we all get our flu vaccines. And aside from some arm (or thigh, for the kids) soreness for a day or so, we recover just fine within a few minutes (I admit, a Chick-Fil-A milkshake helps)!

So make a plan to get yourself and your kids their flu vaccines this fall! Flu vaccines are now available at both of our locations - give us a call to schedule your child's flu vaccine appointment and stay tuned for instructions on how to self-schedule.

Chris Killingsworth, MD