As regular readers here know, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (mostly teenagers, btw) who cross our borders illegally and without parents.
The shelters in which they are housed are usually operated by contractors including some of the nine refugee contractors mentioned often here at RRW.
I guess you have all been seeing reports that Covid-19 mostly takes its toll on seniors, but that children can be infected and show only mild symptoms and could thus be missed as carriers.
From CNN:
Shelters told to report any coronavirus cases among migrant children
The federal agency tasked with caring for unaccompanied migrant children told staff at shelters Monday that children who may have been exposed to or at risk from coronavirus must be flagged to the health division within four hours, according to an email obtained by CNN.
Children found to be exposed to coronavirus and with symptoms of respiratory disease should also be isolated, the agency told shelters.
Care providers are generally expected to have “an identified space within the shelter facility that may be used for quarantine or isolation” in that a child needs to be separated for a medical reason, according to the agency’s website.
The guidance sent out by the US Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Refugee Resettlement is indicative of the increased vigilance across the government amid concerns over coronavirus. The dispatch lists symptoms of coronavirus, the agency’s response, and specific guidance to ORR care providers.
[….]
The Office of Refugee Resettlement told CNN in a statement last week that as of February 27, there have not been any suspected or confirmed COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus) disease cases among unaccompanied children in ORR care. There are around 3,600 children in care.
An email went out to staff at those shelters Monday. “This guidance is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations and is adapted for the [unaccompanied children] Program,” the email says. “This is a rapidly evolving situation, and updated guidance may be released in the future, as necessary.”
[….]
An attached document says ORR’s Division of Health for Unaccompanied Children is working with the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, among others, to monitor when an unaccompanied child “from a high-risk location as designated by CDC … is initially referred to ORR care.”
Shelter administrators have four hours to notify ORR if they have any suspicious illness, or any ‘child’ who might have been exposed to the virus.
The document also provides a breakdown of identification of risk and response, adding that “any child found to be at possible risk for COVID-19 based on travel history or contact with a known case must be flagged to [Division of Health for Unaccompanied Children] via email within 4 hours.”
By the way, I have 320 previous posts in my health issues category.
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