COVID-19 Common Questions: do children need masks and how likely to get it again?

Kids and COVID-19, what every parent needs to know

Dr. Anurag Malani from Saint Joseph Mercy Health System took some time to answer important questions for every parent.

As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout Michigan and especially the Detroit Metro area, Dr. Anurag Malani from Saint Joseph Mercy Health System is here to answer a few important questions about the virus and what you need to know.

Dr. Malani joined FOX 2's on Wednesday to answer some of the biggest questions we've received about the virus.

Do children need to wear masks?

Most cases that have been reported in children are mild, which is good news. Also good news is that children are not the most vulnerable to significant disease.

That being said, Dr. Malani said we still shouldn't be allowing our children to be in social gatherings where it can be spread. As for a mask in public, well, it's up to you but it can be difficult.

"When you put a mask on, you want to avoid touching the mask. Our hands are contaminated. most kids are going to want to pull it off," he said.

Is a second wave a real concern?

"Once we get past this- and we definitely will, we'll get to another state - we're going to need to keep measures that we've put in place for prevention and for mitigation we're still going to need to have those in place until we have an effective vaccine, effective therapeutics," Dr. Malani said.

The concern, he said, would be in places like nursing facilities and prisons and stressed it would important to control the spread in those areas. 

He did offer hope that we will someday have things slowly and gradually lifted but said: "we're still going to have to be cognizant of a lot of the prevention steps we put in place right now."

He said the restrictions are still important.

"I think it's absolutely necessary at this time. We've all seen the numbers and the curve hasn't flattened yet. We're going to really watch carefully in the next week or two and see where we go," Dr. Malani said.

Up to a quarter of the patients are minimally symptomatic or pre-symptomatic and they're at risk of transmitting the infection even before they show any symptoms.

COVID-19 Facebook Q and A

With more than 28,000 Michigan residents testing positive for COVID-19, Dr. Dr. Anurag Malani from Saint Joseph Mercy Health System is answering some important questions about what everyone needs to know.

How high of a temperature is too high?

Dr. Malani said it's important to be cognizant of all of your symptoms - cough, shortness of breath, and fever. But they are watching for lower than usual temperatures for this infection.

"What we do in the hospital, and most healthcare settings is really lowering that threshold for temperature. We use a temperature of 100. Typically when we think of most infections, we think a bit higher - 100.4," he said.

If you have any of the above symptoms or a temperature near 100, stay home and call your doctor.

Will it be safe to return to the school in September even if a vaccine is not ready?

Dr. Malani is optimistic that students would back in the fall as the virus and our knowledge about it evolves. He also said while they're not at risk, they do spread the virus.

"September is a long way away. I suspect with many of these things, as we've seen the evolution of testing, evolution of antibody testing, I think we'll also see evolution of therapeutics. Just to emphasize, while kids are not at risk for significant disease, we don't fully understand their role in potentially spreading this," he said.

How likely is it to get it COVID-19 again?

Dr. Malani said it's still early but it's unlikely you can get it more than once. At least, for now.

"We've only been dealing with the coronavirus in this country - it's hard to believe - it's not even been three months," he said. "It's thought people will mount an immune response. Being able to check for antibodies will help with that."

He said best case, it's unlikely that you'd be able to get it twice, at least right now.

Is it possible someone already had it?

Most mild cases have not been tested due to a limited availability for testing. Earlier this week, the state expanded testing to anyone but that still takes time.  

Dr. Malani said if you had flu-like symptoms in the past month, since it's been widespread, it's a good chance you already had COVID-19.