Official nod for parents to stay with kids during central quarantine
A boy receives a PCR test in a local community.
Shanghai today officially announced that parents can apply to accompany their children during central quarantine after signing an agreement, regardless of whether they've tested positive for the virus or not.
Parents can accompany children who require special care after submitting an application and signing an acknowledgement of the potential health risks during central quarantine, said Wu Qianyu, a senior official with the Shanghai Health Commission.
The accompanying parents must carry out personal protection, such as wearing masks, staggering the times they have meals with their children and avoiding the share of commodities like towels, Wu said at the city's daily press briefing on Wednesday.
Parents and children who have both tested positive will be housed in local makeshift hospitals or central quarantine sites, Wu said.
"We continue improving and optimizing our services and guarantee measures for children who have been infected," Wu said.
"Children are a vulnerable group and their infections touch everyone's heart," she said, adding that as a parent she empathizes with parents of young patients. "We must obey the laws and rules but also take into account special circumstances."
A special zone for infected children has been set up with stronger care and professional medical teams to observe and treat them, Wu added.
According to a previous stipulation, only parents who tested positive could accompany their children to central quarantine.
On Tuesday, officials from Shanghai Children's Medical Center serving at the city's largest makeshift hospital at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in the Pudong New Area announced that parents, regardless of whether or not they've tested positive for COVID-19, can stay with their infected children at makeshift hospitals.
