Q: Visits and COVID-19 quarantine
I live in the state of New Jersey and have custody of my niece , her mother lives in a state that the New Jersey governor has put on the 14 day quarantine list and I have a poor immune system. She is only aloud 1 day time visit and no over nights but like I said her state that she comes from is on the New Jersey quarantine list. Can I put a hold on the visits until her state is lifted from the list to protect my family in my house from the chances of catching this virus
A: Not an easy issue to resolve given that you have a compromised immune system and the biological mother has significant restrictions on her contact / access to her daughter. Im guessing that the reason for the non-overnight plan in place has to do with concerns for the mothers mental health issues or because of some type of addiction issue? If I am correct, that simply adds to the legitimacy of your health concerns. My suggestion is that you call or text her and tell her that you are concerned about her visiting with her daughter at this time, given the restrictions put in place by our governor and that you would like to explore alternatives for her to communicate with her daughter. I would suggest that a plan be put in place for skype, facetime or zoom communications between her and her daughter and maybe instead of 1 visit per week, suggest that she be able to communicate with her daughter 2-3 times per week moving forward by facetime, skype or zoom for 1 hour per day. Maybe by offering her more frequent contact will work for her as well.
A: Thank you for your question. The short answer is yes, if you have a compromised immune system. You will need to offer make up visitation days when her state is removed from the quarantine list.
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