U.S.

What Risk Am I, My Child At If I Share Custody?

In our series "What's the Risk?" experts weigh in on what risks different scenarios pose for transmitting COVID-19.

What Risk Am I, My Child At If I Share Custody?
Videoblocks
SMS

When it comes to getting sick with COVID-19, you might be thinking about this, and we have too. Mohamed asks: 

"My 15-year-old daughter spent the last month in her mom’s residence. My ex works as a nurse and admits her exposure to COVID19. My daughter has no symptoms and is back in my house. I am afraid she could be a carrier of the virus. What's the risk of having her back and what should I do?"

We asked the experts: Dr. Irfan N. Hafiz, an Infectious Disease Physician & Northwest Region Chief Medical Officer, Northwestern Medicine; Katie Cary, Vice President of Infection Prevention for HCA Continental Division; and Dr. Jasmine Marcelin, an infectious disease specialist at Nebraska Medicine.

Their take, in this case, it’s medium risk. 

"If the mom who is exposed has not developed any symptoms in the last two weeks, then the daughter who was with the mom is less likely to also have been exposed to COVID19. And so I think it kind of depends on where the timing of when that exposure was," Marcelin said. 

"It's important to understand what sort of contact there was, the time frame of the contact. The incubation period can be up to 14 days. So certainly the risk would decrease as time went on," Cary said. 

"I think the concerns would be different if, say, in this case, mom started to develop a fever or have respiratory complaints. That's a situation where I would be a little more concerned about the child and would want to keep an eye on the child." Hafiz said. 

If you have a question about your risk, send us a video to whatstherisk@newsy.com. You can see answers to other questions here