COVID-19 Guidance for Childcare Providers

SOLANO PUBLIC HEALTH | MARCH 18, 2020

To limit the spread of COVID-19 disease, contact with infected or exposed individuals must be reduced as much as possible. Conventional school classes have been dismissed, but the Solano Public Health recognizes the need for continuity of childcare to ensure that essential services and wage-earning activities can continue.

Solano Public Health recommends the following guidance for childcare providers, effective immediately:

1. Childcare ideally should be provided in the child’s home, by non-elderly household members not living in the household or ill individuals.

2. Group childcare may be used for children for whom in-home care by household members is not available. It should be prioritized for use by essential service employees and those who would otherwise not be able to work.

3. Group childcare should:
a. Be in stable groups of 10 or fewer children (“stable” means that the same 10 or fewer children are in the same group each day). Children should not change from one group to another.
b. If more than 1 group of children is cared for at one facility, each group should be in a separate room. Groups should not mix with each other. For example: meals, playground time, and toileting activities should be separate for each group.
c. Childcare provider(s) should also remain solely with one group of children (providers should not move from group to group or room to room).

4. Infection control measures:
a. Screen children and staff for cold or flu-like symptoms or signs of a respiratory illness (i.e., fever, cough, shortness of breath) daily, before entering childcare.
b. Exclude ill children and employees (those with symptoms specified above) from the facility.
c. Children or staff who develop symptoms at childcare should be sent home immediately.
d. Ill children or staff should not return to work or childcare until they are well.
e. Children and staff should wash hands with soap and water for minimum of 20 seconds or use alcoholbased hand sanitizer (if hands are not visibly dirty) before and after eating, drinking, touching eyes/nose/mouth, toileting or diapering, and physical contact with each other.
f. Clean high-contact areas and surfaces frequently, using 10% bleach solution or EPA-approved disinfectant against novel human Coronaviruses: counters, toys, telephones, doorknobs, etc.
g. Staff and children should practice good respiratory hygiene including coughing/sneezing into the sleeve and covering coughs.