Home quarantine for travelers buys time as virus spreads
Shen seniors have eyes on the prize heading into sectionals
SEATTLE » On his return from China last week, Dr. Ian Lipkin quarantined himself in his basement. His wife now puts his food on the stairs. He’s run out of things to watch on Netflix. At odd hours, he walks in New York’s Central Park, keeping 10 feet away from others.
Lipkin is among hundreds of people in the U.S. and thousands around the world who, although not sick, live in semi-voluntary quarantine at home. With attention focused on quarantined cruise ships and evacuees housed on U. S. military bases, those in their own homes have largely escaped notice.
They, too, experts say, play a crucial role in slowing the spread of the new viral disease now called COVID-19.
Most cases and nearly all deaths have been in mainland China. Around the world, authorities are urging two weeks of home quarantine and symptom monitoring for travelers returning from there.
It’s the only tool they have.
“We don’t yet have a vaccine and we don’t have approved drugs for prevention of disease or treatment of disease. So all we have is isolation,” said Lipkin, who directs Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity.
An expert virus hunter, Lipkin was invited by Chinese health authorities to help assess the risk posed by COVID-19. He did similar work in China during the SARS outbreak in 2003.
“This is my second time in the slammer,” said Lipkin, who spent time in quarantine then. He will end his confinement Tuesday, celebrating with a dry martini in public.
The numbers in home quarantine are constantly changing and hard to pin down. New York state, for instance, has received the names of more than 350 who recently returned from mainland China. Local health departments are monitoring them, recommending quarantine for those without known exposure to the virus.
State and U.S. guidelines sort people into high-, medium- and low-risk groups and have advice for each group, but local health departments have discretion in how to carry out the quarantines.
Authorities in Taiwan have fined those who violate quarantines, but so far U.S. officials are relying on people’s sense of responsibility, though they have the power to order a quarantine and get help from police to enforce it. Breaking a quarantine order is a misdemeanor in most states. Violating a federal quarantine order can mean fines and imprisonment.
Some have put themselves in quarantine without an order from health authorities. In Highland, Indiana, Ken and Annie Zurek finished 15 days of selfimposed home quarantine Thursday.
“We grew together as a couple,” Ken Zurek said. “I can’t think of any other person I’d want to spend in quarantine together.” Their confinement began after returning early from a trip to Chongqing, China, to meet their new granddaughter. Ken Zurek, a 63-year- old concrete business owner, had read up on the virus and added a 15th day to their quarantine “because I was a Boy Scout, always trying to be prepared and do the right thing.”
Pat Premick, a 57-yearold executive coach who had been living in China, has been in self- quarantine in the Pittsburgh area since returning to the U. S. early this month. On Friday, she said she has two days left.
To keep busy, she’s been doing puzzles, reading books and talking to friends in China who are going through the same thing. Since there aren’t many people in the area where she’s staying, she takes occasional walks. Friends have been leaving food for her outside, which she fetches after they walk away.
“I’m waving from the window,” she said.
In Seattle, public health workers buy groceries to make sure the people stay comfortable while in home quarantine, bringing one person blueberries, bananas and hair conditioner. Another person confined to a motel room asked for and received an instant teapot to heat soup. The health department workers make sure people have Wi-Fi so they can work and stay connected to family. They arrange calls with counselors for those with anxiety.
Several hundred returning travelers are staying away from others while they monitor their symptoms in Seattle’s King County, where the health department is spending about $200,000 a week on efforts to contain the virus.
“It’s a little bit crazy right now,” said Dr. Meagan Kay, who heads King County’s containment efforts.
In India, health authorities have advised a 28- day home quarantine for returning travelers, much longer than the two-week incubation period accepted elsewhere. In Kerala, a state in the southernmost tip of India with three confirmed cases of COVID-19, more than 2,300 people are quarantined at home. They are told to sleep wearing a medical mask and call a helpline if they feel stir crazy.
“It is absolutely boring to be in your room for 28 days,” said Dr. Amar Fetle, who heads the response in Kerala.
In Nordmaling, Sweden, the owners of a Chinese restaurant said they are following health authorities’ guidelines by voluntarily quarantining themselves after a trip to China. They are closing their restaurant until Feb. 27.
“It is to protect ourselves and our customers,” Stanislav Maid told the newspaper Aftonbladet. He runs the restaurant with his wife, Zhou Weixiang. “I have gotten quite a lot of positive reactions from people in the area who think it’s good we take our responsibility.”
In Shanghai, China, home quarantine for journalist Michael Smith of The Australian Financial Review newspaper, began when he returned from a trip to Hong Kong.
“I imagine this is how prison must feel,” Smith
CLIFTONPARK, NY » Despite being one of the largest schools in Section II, the Shenendehowa Boys’ Basketball team only has two seniors, Jake Reinisch and Lucas Seyoum.
The two have worked as team leaders during their 16-2 season, clinching the Suburban Council and likely top seed in the Section 2 tournament.
“We’ve done pretty well this season overall. We started with a loss against Lincoln, from the city, but we only lost one other game and that was to Newburgh Free Academy.
Now we’ve won the Suburban Council and I think we’ve had a pretty successful season,” said Seyoum. Given that the Plainsmen’s two losses were against out- of-section teams, they went a perfect 13- 0 in their conference.
The loss to Newburgh came in a high profile game at the Albany Armory on Saturday January 25, 2020. The Goldbacks picked up the 63- 46 victory, who were ranked #5 in New York State when the game was played, while Shen was ranked #13. Reinisch had 5 three-pointers in the loss, on his way to 17 points and Seyoum had 12 points.
“Shen’s a very good threepoint shooting team. The whole concept was that we had to make sure we were challenging everything,” said Frank Dinnocenzio, Newburgh’s head coach. “We knew they were one of the better teams coming up here. I think, as long as we get out of our section and out of our region, this could be a team we might play if we’re able to get to Glens Falls,”
Shenendehowa’s coach Tony Dzikas echoed that sentiment, about his desire to schedule games against teams like Lincoln and NFA, who are some of the best competition out there.
“We have six non-leagues games and we want to play against the best competition in the state, and they certainly showed us that. NFA’s a state-championship contending team. They are long, they’re athletic, they have all the pieces. Those are teams wewant to play,” said Dzikas.
“Albany Academy played them two weeks later and
NFA beat them too. They’re really good. We think we’re really good too, but against a team like that, you make little mistakes and a matchup with them can be really difficult, and I think we learned from it.”
Seyoum and Reinisch will have to work together to lead the Plainsmen to the Section 2 title and beyond, but they’ve spent years preparing for this moment. “I’ve been playing with Jake since I was in eighth grade. I played with him a lot and against him a lot during AAU, so it’s pretty cool now that we’re here as seniors now,” said Seyoum.
Reinisch is hoping that their senior season still has many more memories in the making. “Over the past three years on varsity together we’ve created such a great bond, he’s one of my best friends on the planet. It means a lot to be able to go through everything with him and I’m looking forward to the sectional run we hope to make,” said Reinisch, who went on to talk about his team’s approach going into the tournament.
“Obviously our goal is to win the sectionals. We’ve done a good job of taking it game-by-game. Right now our goal is to win our next game. [A state title] would be a dreamcome true, but that’s a little far down the road for me right now. We’re just taking it little-by-little, having good practices and scrimmages, preparing for whoever we might face.”
While the Section 2 tournament starts this week, if Shenendehowais going to get another shot at Newburgh, then both teams will have to make it to the state championship game, as that would be the only time Section 9 could collide with Section 2 in the state bracket.