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Parents With Suspected COVID-19 Must Still Take Care Of Their Kids

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Just as Governor Polis is home with his kids in Colorado, Hunter Morton is home with two children in Manhattan, Kan. She's a stay-at-home mom. Her husband is a utility worker who has to keep going to work. They've been careful when he comes home.

HUNTER MORTON: He has to take off his uniform and put it right in the washer and then go shower. Like, there's no, hey, how are you? How was your day? - just so that, you know, he wasn't bringing it in the house. But, unfortunately, it happened anyways.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now their doctor suspects they both have COVID-19, and they're trying to get tested. Hunter Morton already had asthma and another respiratory ailment before her COVID symptoms started on Thursday.

MORTON: The exhaustion you feel with it is something I've never dealt with before. I think I was sleeping probably close to 18 hours a day. And there's a lot of anxiety that goes into being quarantined. So it just kind of bogs you down.

MARTIN: Now her husband feels that fatigue. Both have body aches, and they're coughing while still caring for their 7-year-old and 4-year-old. They don't want to send them to a relative's home.

MORTON: We've been, I want to say, powering through it - I guess tag-teaming - just because I don't know if my kids are carrying it, so I don't want to take that to another home.

INSKEEP: Friends are helping by dropping off groceries. The kids can pass time distance learning or on the tire swing out back. The 4-year-old just seems happy his sister is home, but his older sister has questions.

MORTON: She was like, why can't I go to school? Why can't I see my friends? And it's like, well, honey, you know, we have to stay home. There are people getting sick. And then after a couple of weeks, she just kind of was like, OK, this is life now.

MARTIN: Hunter Morton of Manhattan, Kan., is one of the quarantined parents we're meeting this week. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.