COVID Quarantine

So you have to quarantine someone for COVID-19 due to a close contact or State rules?

It’s not that hard if you think through and understand the risks.  I have had to do this twice, once in March when a family member came from NY to live with us for a while.  That was when Florida had the mandatory 14-day quarantine for visitors from New York and a few other States. The second time was more recent and due to a Close Contact.  I’ll explain how I did both, given the different situations, changing nature of what we know about the virus and how it spreads.

The House, Selecting a Room, Entry

Our house is a ranch built in the mid-1950s. We have 3 bedrooms, one of which, the master, has an exterior door and its own bathroom with a shower. This has been the logical room to use for quarantine. An external door is great, and of course, a separate bathroom in the room is also better.  If you have neither:

• Select a room that is the most secluded from the rest of the rooms
• Preferably leave the house before they enter
• Have them get all their stuff into the room and close the door.
• If there is no bathroom in that room, assign a bathroom just for them unless you only have one. If you have only one, have everyone wear PPE at a minimum when going to that bathroom and the person quarantining should wear one all their waking time, unless in their bedroom.
• After they have entered the room, put on PPE including a mask and gloves, and clean the area they came through.
• If you have HEPA filters be sure they are running
• Leaving open windows and doors will help.

In our case, the person drives to our house, we have them park the car in the driveway where the car won’t interfere with anything or block another car. That vehicle is left for 7 days before we enter it and clean it out. Certainly more than enough time, given what we know now. The person goes into the backyard and moves their stuff into the bedroom room themselves.  They never enter the rest of the house during the quarantine.

We have removed all the work and casual clothes we need, all bathroom stuff and other materials, chargers, etc. from the room they will occupy.  We actually bought some large plastic boxes with lids and a hanging clothes rack on wheels the first time for our clothes that we remove.  These go into another room and the second bathroom. The hanging clothes rack has been great, as we don’t have a lot of closet space.

The room already has a large HEPA filter in it.  I replace the MERV 8 filter in our central AC with a MERV 13 during these times.  This filter does create some excess backpressure so I don’t leave it in when not needed and buy a new one each time.

Into the room

• A table/desk

  

• Chair with wheels
• Small refrigerator
• Microwave
• Extra power strips
• A pan
• A pot
• Paper plates
• A cup
• A glass
• A Bowl
• Fork, knife, and spoon
• Filled hand soap dispenser
• Hand sanitizer
• Bleach cleaner for the bathroom
• Paper towels multiple rolls
• Toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash

  

• Shower soap and shampoo
• Extra towels
• Wash clothes
• Large kitchen size trash can (there is a small one in the bathroom). In each can I place extra plastic trash bags in the bottom
• Be sure the internet connection is good.  I put a small 5 port switch wired directly into the Google Mesh (which is already in the room) with three cables out of the switch. The switch is on the table/desk. The direct connection to Google wifi doubled the download speed versus connecting via wifi.
• For laundry, not needed the first time, they put it in a plastic trash bag, wearing PPE we take it to the laundry machine, dump it in and wash it.  We return clean clothes in another bag.
• I placed a Google mini in there so they can change the temperature in the house if it’s too hot or cold.

Food and Drinks

As for food and drinks, I always ask what they want first and then add stuff. The first person was a vegetarian and liked fresh vegetables so we put in salad bags, cauliflower, other vegetables, a case of water, crackers, chips, and other items. For the second person, we had a broader list of foods some of which you can see above and in the refrigerator picture to the right..

I place a BBQ outside and put a Coleman two-burner propane stove with it. This way they can cook outdoors, boil water, etc.

• Extra propane
• Charcoal
• Lighters
• Propane canisters
• BBQ utensils
• BBQ Mitt

If they want to make burgers or chicken on the grill, I pick it up. Anything they need during their quarantine is delivered to the back door and left there.

Their Mental Health

Understand that it’s a drag being in quarantine, and there is a door into the house. So to make it fun I added a sign to the door into the house reminding them not to open it.

Be sure to check in with the person frequently.  The exterior door also gives them a place to go outside and be secluded and appropriately distanced from other people.

Issues

Air Handling – Because our house is older, there is considerable room below the doors, we had them place a towel below it, but I’m not sure that is the best idea as the AC main return vent is in the hallway outside the bedrooms and second bathroom. The air is supposed to flow from their room into the hallway and be picked up by the return vent in the ceiling. So I added a small HEPA filter to the hallway, but we still left the towel under their door.

Also as an older home, the bathroom fan in their bathroom vents directly into the attic and is probably 6 feet from the second bathroom ceiling fan vent which also vents directly into the attic.  This is a concern as a possible way for the virus to spread from their bathroom into the one we use.  For that reason, we run the fan in the second bathroom before entering and the entire time we are in there. I also leave the second bathroom door open when not in use, this door is right in front of the newly purchased HEPA filter.

While we cleaned like crazy during the first quarantine, we are still cleaning, but more worried about aerosolization. So we:

• Purchased a third HEPA filter as mentioned above and placed it in the hallway. The second HEPA filter is in the bedroom we can sleep in.  This bedroom is furthest away from their room.  We also sleep/camp in the back yard as long as it’s not too hot.
• Wear a mask whenever in the house
• Have been leaving open windows and external doors throughout the house. Except for their bedroom door into the house.
• Run the ceiling fans in the various rooms
• Spend more time outside

Some other Ideas

The first night we always order out and leave the food at their doorstep and leave before they get it.  One Saturday night we got on Zoom and had a party complete with drinks which we pre-delivered.  It was a tasting party, so we mixed it up.  Fresh cookies or cake are a good idea for those who like that.  Sushi was also well appreciated.  And of course, we throw a party once out!

Let me know your ideas, suggestions, and thoughts.