GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- All paid childcare providers in Kent County are now required to conduct daily screenings of staff, children and parents for coronavirus symptoms.

The Kent County Health Department is mandating the screenings under a Public Health Order issued Sunday, March 22. The order goes into effect immediately and until further notice.

“I understand this order may cause an inconvenience in our childcare facilities,” said Kent County Administrative Health Officer Adam London. “However, we need to take more aggressive mitigation actions to protect the health and safety of our residents in order to stop the community spread of this virus.”

Staff and children, as well as parents or visitors who enter a childcare facility, are required under the order to be screened each day for symptoms of a respiratory infection.

Those symptoms include a fever of 100.4 degrees or greater, severe cough and/or shortness of breath unrelated to a chronic condition.

The order also requires the childcare facility to have procedures in place to check the temperature of all screened individuals.

Those who have a fever will not be allowed to enter a childcare facility until they have been fever free for 72 hours without using any fever-reducing medications. Seven days must also have passed since the onset of severe coughing and/or breathing difficulties.

Non-essential visitors are not allowed to enter childcare facilities.

The number of cases in Kent County totals 20 as of Sunday afternoon, March 22. So far, there has been one death in the county due to coronavirus.

Statewide, there have been nine deaths total and 1,035 confirmed cases.

PREVENTION TIPS

Michigan’s State Emergency Operations Center is coordinating state-government resources and the response to the coronavirus spread. It has shared the following tips:

What you can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases:

RELATED STORIES:

Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus

Coronavirus cases top 1,000 in Michigan

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer closes hair and nail salons, tattoo shops due to coronavirus