CoVID-19: Office Procedures and Vaccine Recommendations

Dear Parents and Patients,

While our country's Public Health Emergency for CoVID-19 has now officially ended, CoVID-19 continues to circulate in our community, state, and nation. Advocare Parsippany Pediatrics is currently a mask-optional environment for those who do not have symptoms that might be consistent with CoVID-19 or have a diagnosis of CoVID-19. If you wish for your nurse and provider to wear a mask, we are happy to do so on request. For those who do have symptoms that might be due to CoVID-19 (such as coughing or fever or vomiting) or have a diagnosis of CoVID-19, please make sure to wear masks (both for those who are sick and those accompanying the sick individual, as these individuals have been exposed and may be infectious).

A patient telephone protocol remains in place to screen our patients who may have had exposure to CoVID-19 and/or are exhibiting key symptoms related to the disease. We appreciate your cooperation at the time of scheduling an appointment to identify those who may be at a higher risk. We have modified our workflow: using a backdoor (to bypass the waiting room) and back hallway, ill patients are evaluated without compromising the safety of our other patients in the main part of our office.

TESTING: We do have the ability to provide Rapid Antigen CoVID-19 tests in our office, currently being used for our patients with symptoms that might be due to CoVID-19, as well as to test for CoVID-19 by PCR (through specimen collection in our office, which is sent to a local lab). Our Rapid CoVID test results are available in the same day as the appointment, whereas the PCR test results typically are available in 1 to 3 days. 

Take advantage of the recently renewed program for FREE Rapid home CoVID Testing (up to 4 per household):  https://www.covid.gov/tests

UPDATED (as of 9/2023) CoVID-19 VACCINES:

We strongly recommend CoVID-19 vaccination for all who are eligible.  Importantly, scientific panels’ guidance is quite clear regarding vaccination for those who have previously been infected with CoVID-19:  individuals previously infected with CoVID-19 should be vaccinated, provided it has been at least 10 days since their infection (i.e. out of quarantine) and that any residual symptoms from their infection have resolved (an exception to this is for children who have suffered from MIS-C due to CoVID-19 infection: these children should wait for 90 days and resolution of symptoms). A common recommendation is to receive CoVID-19 vaccine 3 months after an infection with CoVID-19.

Since mid-August, 2023, a new CoVID strain increased in prevalance.  As of mid-September, 2023, a new CoVID vaccination was approved for everyone 6 months and older. The newly recommended vaccine has been designed to be effective protection against the currently circulating version of the virus. The previous versions of the CoVID vaccines (including the original "monovalent" Pfizer and Moderna mRNA-vaccines and the more recent "bivalent booster" mRNA vaccines that we have administered in our office betweeen November 2022 and August 2023) are no longer recommended due to the change in the circulating virus. '

We have now received Moderna's updated version of the CoVID-19 vaccine for our patients. (Both versions, Pfizer and Moderna, are quite reasonable to provide protection for our patients regardless of the version received in the past, but our office will only be providing one brand.) We can schedule vaccine-only appointments to efficiently bring our patients in/out of the office for vaccination. We do not insist that our patients receive the vaccine from us, as it is also available in many pharmacies (though many pharmacies are only providing it to 11 year olds and older). 
 
 NEW CoVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations: please see the following CDC link to understand the most current recommendations for each age patient, including the different recommendations for a previously-unvaccinated 6 month to 4 year old versus a previously-vaccinated 6 month to 4 year old:  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html

Please review this parent-friendly explanation of the CoVID vaccine recommendations and view the embedded video which explains mRNA vaccinations. 

Appointments can be made at our office (click on the "Book Your Appointment Online!" button on the left of this screen or call us) or by visiting your local pharmacy websites, like Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens, Preston Drugs in Boonton, or other websites like Atlantic Health Systems/Goryeb Children's Hospital.  An extremely easy-to-use website to locate CoVID vaccines is vaccines.gov. This site provides locations, hours, age-specific policies, and current vaccine availability.