I heard a really good idea from a friend of mine a few days ago and after thinking about it, decided to share.
It would be a good idea to get into the habit of taking temperatures twice daily at 12-hour intervals. Temperature monitoring for responders was part of the practice at the initial quarantine sites for the evacuees from China and for the 14 days after working in that environment.
The benefit of this is that if those temperatures are taken roughly at the same time each day, it provides a baseline range of temperatures for comparison if one subsequently becomes elevated.
Ideally, each household member would have their own thermometer for the checks. If there was a temperature that fell outside of the normal range, then it would be best to keep that family member in a separate bedroom if possible as well as limiting to a single bathroom that only they would use until the source of the elevated temperature had been determined. This would be the trigger to call your primary care provider to discuss what steps to take.
Of course, many homes may not have the option of a guest bedroom that becomes an in-home isolation room. Even partitioning off a room somehow might help reduce the spread of droplets to other family members. If that’s not possible, then at least maintain a 3-6 foot distance. from the person with the elevated temperature and/or exhibiting symptoms.
During this time, also be especially aware of surface disinfection. This should be part of the norm at this time but be especially vigilant about this practice for surfaces that the potentially sick person touches.
If you don’t have individual thermometers, you could wash well with soap and hot water in between. Also, you could probably get accurate readings using a layer of Saran Wrap abound an oral thermometer. We use a ear scan thermometer and there is a shortage of the plastic covers for the tip, so we are using the same one but wiping down the thermometer with bleach spray in between each use. Gloves could be used, if you have them. In our family, I am the one who takes the reading so that only one person touches the shared thermometer. I have an oral thermometer set aside and if someone actually gets ill, that one is reserved for them. Getting into this practice was a little awkward at first, now the family is used to it and it takes a couple minutes a day.
Between myself working in the healthcare industry, and having a high-risk individual at home (asthma), we are very serious about trying to prevent spread within our family, and want to stop the spread back into our community/workplace if someone is sick. We have a portable HEPA filter to run in the ‘sick’ area. Although distance is critical, someone does need to take care of you if you are ill enough. We have designated which adult that will be, along with designating one adult who is doing errands/groceries at this time.