On March 18, 2024, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) released new guidance for What To Do When You Are Sick With COVID-19 or Another Respiratory Virus | Washington State Department of Health. This guidance applies to the general public, as well as K-12 schools, child cares and early learning programs.

This updated guidance applies for viral respiratory illness, whether it’s COVID-19, influenza, RSV, or another respiratory illness. Individuals with symptoms of a respiratory illness should stay home.

• Children and staff who are experiencing symptoms of a respiratory illness may return to the child care when it has been at least 24 hours since:
  • Symptoms have improved, meaning the individual is feeling better overall and can fully participate in regular classroom activities.
  • Fever has resolved, without the use of fever reducing medications.
  • When people return to normal activities, they should wear a mask for the first five days and take additional precautions such as taking steps to improve air flow and filtration, practicing good hand hygiene, cleaning regularly, physically distancing, and testing if accessible when they will be around others indoors.
• For staff, always follow the current LNI guidance.

• Please be advised that child cares can always have health policies that are stricter than the current federal or state guidance. Because masking is not recommended for anyone under the age of 2 years old and can be challenging for some individuals, child cares may choose to implement additional mitigation factors, such as:
  • Improving airflow by opening windows, increasing fresh air intake on your HVAC system, and spending more time outdoors whenever possible.
  • Maintaining a 5-10 day isolation period for positive cases.
  • Recommending testing during an outbreak.
  • These additional standards need to be included in your facility’s health policy and shared with families. 

Reporting Requirements:  According to WAC 110-300-0205, child cares are required to report cases of contagious illness, such as COVID-19, to the local health jurisdiction in order to receive guidance on how to proceed.

• Individual cases: Individual cases that were identified via testing performed by a medical facility or lab-certified test should be reported to the Snohomish County Health Department or Washington State Department of Health, but those reported by family/other means do not need to be reported by the child care (such as at-home tests). These cases may still be reported if the child care would like guidance in responding.
• Reporting outbreaks: Child care and early learning providers must also report all potential and current illness outbreaks. Child cares must report whenever they have 5 or more cases of COVID-19 within a group or 20% of a group is out sick.

You can read more about these changes in the Snohomish County Health Department’s recent blog post – 4 Things to Know about Updated COVID Guidance. Consult with the Child Care Health Outreach Program if you have any questions about these changes or would like assistance in updating or implementing your health policy. You can reach us at shd.childcarehealth@co.snohomish.wa.us or by phone at 425.252.5415.