COVID tests on children targeted
Pediatric hospital’s busy ERs are not able to check all of them
Since school started this month, Texas Children’s Hospital emergency centers and urgent care clinics have been filled with parents seeking COVID-19 tests for their children.
But emergency rooms don’t have the capacity to test all of them, especially if they are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, said Dr. Brent Kaziny, medical director of emergency management at Texas Children’s Hospital.
In addition to handling COVIDpositive patients, the pediatric hospital is in the middle of a busierthan-usual season for respiratory syncytial virus and is handling patients who come in for the “normal things,” such as accidents, falls and other injuries that come with the start of school.
A number of Houston and Galveston-area schools do onsite COVID testing, but there’s not a blanket testing policy from the Texas Education Agency. On Aug. 19, the agency changed its guidance to require schools to inform parents if their child is exposed to the virus at school.
If an individual who has been in a school tests positive, the school is required to notify the local health department and Texas Department of State Health Services. Schools must notify all teachers, staff and families of all students in a classroom, extracurricular activity or after-school program if a test-confirmed case is identified among students or staff who participated in those activities or classrooms, according to the new guidance.
Kaziny said parents are faced with difficult decisions when they receive emails from school about their child being exposed. While it’s common for school-age children to come
down with sniffles or a fever, that doesn’t mean they should be brought to an emergency room for a COVID test, he added.
If the child is experiencing mild symptoms, Kaziny recommends finding a pharmacy or public testing site and making an appointment.
“Obviously when the child is sick, it’s a challenge for the parent who is in a different mindset than they were pre-COVID, (when) they felt comfortable taking care of their kid at home if they had minor symptoms,” he said. “Now they’re jumping in the car and seeking that out in the emergency center for maybe not medical concerns, but solely testing.”
People should not be tested until three to five days after potential COVID exposure, which will cut down on the possibility of false negative tests, he said. Most hospitals, including Texas Children’s, use a PCR molecular COVID test, which has a turnaround time of 48 to 72 hours.
Kaziny says parents should bring their child to the emergency room if the child has a fever that does not improve with Tylenol or Ibuprofen. If the child has worsening issues, such as labored breathing and an elevated heart rate, take them to the hospital.
If the fever recurs but other symptoms have subsided, Kaziny recommends making an appointment with a pediatrician.