If you notice that your child has new or worsening symptoms, what you do depends on the symptom and how usual they are for your child.

If your child has new or worsening:

• Fever/chills
• Cough
• Shortness of breath
• Decreased or loss of smell or taste

Your child should isolate immediately, and you should contact your child’s health provider for further advice or assessment. The health care provider can help you determine
whether the symptoms are related to another non-COVID-19 condition, or if they should get tested for COVID-19.

If your child has ONE new or worsening symptom (that is not related to a known cause or condition) that include:

• Sore throat
• Stuffy nose/runny nose
• Headache
• Nausea/vomiting/diarrhea
• Fatigue/lethargy/muscle aches/malaise

Your child should stay home for 24 hours to be monitored to see whether the symptoms get better or worse. If they start to feel better and symptoms are improving, they can
return to school/childcare when well enough to do so and no COVID-19 testing is needed.

If the symptoms get worse, you should contact their health care provider for further advice or assessment. The health care provider can help you determine whether the symptoms
are related to another non-COVID-19 condition, or if they should get tested for COVID-19.

If your child has TWO or MORE new or worsening symptoms (that are not related to a known cause or condition) that include:

• Sore throat
• Stuffy nose/runny nose
• Headache
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Fatigue/lethargy/muscle aches or malaise

Your child should isolate immediately, and you should contact your child’s health provider for further advice or assessment. The health care provider can help you determine whether the symptoms are related to another non-COVID-19 condition, or if they should get tested for COVID-19.

If your child’s only symptom is a runny nose, you should keep your child home and monitor their symptoms as you would in any other year. When they feel better, they are ready to
go back to school/childcare and no COVID-19 testing is needed. If they get worse or develop other symptoms, you should contact their health care provider for more advice. Mild symptoms known to persist in young children (e.g., runny nose) may be ongoing at time of return to school/childcare if other symptoms have been resolved.

If your child has been identified as needing a test and everyone else in the family is well, no testing of other family members is needed. If your child tests positive for COVID-19, the local public health unit will contact you/your child and make a plan for additional testing of all close contacts.

It depends on the situation. Please refer to the IPAC policy for more detailed information to ensure that your child can safely return to school/childcare.

If you need additional information about COVID-19 or have a question specific to your child and their health, please contact your health care provider.