If you are coronacautious how would you manage this family visit?

[CovoidanceMechanism]

Two households from my extended family are planning a visit with overnight stays. (The first visit planned after the death of an elderly family member from Covid).

Both households have children too young to distance. One household has a vulnerable member so has been ultra cautious the other follows the rules but has eg continued school attendance throughout lockdown and socialised outdoors with families from the school bubble. They will will reduce their activities (but not to quarantine level) for a week or so beforehand.

Do you think this is risky and how would you manage this to be as safe as possible?

One idea is minimising contact indoors during the visit which may or may not make sense. Another is avoiding the overnight stay and just meeting outdoors.

Realistically if this contact goes ahead I think it will be hard, and not good for anyone’s mental health, keeping the children from playing normally.

[DarlingCoffee]

I would proceed but say no to the overnight stays

[EsmereldaMargaretNoteSpelling]

No overnight stay, outdoors only, and make sure the children do actually distance. If you absolutely can't ensure the latter then tbh I don't think I'd go ahead at all in the circumstances you describe.

[alreadytaken]

How vulnerable, how do they feel about the visit and are the visitors/ people being visited from areas with a high or low level of infection? If possible the visitors have a separate bathroom - if not can you book a hotel room where they would have their own bathroom?

Keep all windows open during the visit, separate towels for both families or paper towels that are discarded separately. Separate plates to eat off, all household tasks done by least risky family. Whenever possible stay out of doors and consider wearing medical standard masks indoors.

Ultimately we all decide what level of risk we are happy with - if anyone is too uncomfortable just meet outdoors or not at all.

[Alanna1]

Second family should reduce to isolation level the 10 days before! That’s what we, and everyone I know, has done before seeing elderly parents/grandparents.

[cuppycakey]

Agree with PP - no overnights and very limited contact.

[CovoidanceMechanism]

Thank you, massively helpful. I thought the thread sank without trace 🙂

[alreadytaken]

well I'm thinking about arranging a visit with an individual whose job makes them more likely to get Covid and they would also possibly be be asymptomatic with it because they are young. We are moderately high risk but sometimes you need to take risks to make life worth living. So how the vulnerable person feels is crucial - but there are things you can do to minimise risk.

[MRex]

What are the infection rates in both families' areas? I'd say no to the overnight stay, just do things outside. Kids can distance if you keep them distracted, e.g. put them on bikes.

[minnieok]

Depends on vulnerability level. I'm seeing my parents over 70 but they don't have underlying health conditions. We aren't seeing dp's dsis because she's on immunosuppressants (first time is outside end of month). I'm not sure a hotel room is less risk than your house though, isolate a week prior and be careful before that (playground is a particular point with contact) and use the garden a lot perhaps. Without knowing how vulnerable no one can really judge.

[alreadytaken]

If people stay in your house they are more likely to have to share a bathroom and there are more meals to consider. In a hotel you can take cereal for an in room breakfast or some are doing room service with no extra charge. Masks are required in corridors.

[ACautionaryTale]

ASk the vulnerable...

I have two supposed to shields in my family - and both are over 76

They have carried on as normal regardless throughout and would be in hysterics if they thought I was twisting myself up into knots over visiting them/having them visit

[singme]

I visited my parents and elderly grandfather. Discussed with my mum beforehand about staying elsewhere but she was having none of it.

I was more worried about infecting them than catching it myself. We didn’t do much in the week before visiting, we had separate bathrooms and took our own towels. Hand sanitised a lot and wiped surfaces. Pulled out the dinner table to make it bigger and tried to sit further apart. Took off the bedding before we left.

DP thought I was being a bit daft as likely to pass it on in enclosed space anyway but i thought why not make a little extra effort with hygiene and distancing. It didn’t affect the visit at all and if we had been pre symptomatic we maybe would have avoided passing anything on.