#BREAKING
The @CDCgov plans to release new guidance on Friday urging schools to fully reopen in the fall, even if they cannot take all of the steps the agency recommends to curb the spread of the coronavirus nytimes.com/2021/07/09/hea…
The agency will also call on school districts to use local health data to guide decisions about when to tighten or relax prevention measures like mask wearing and physical distancing.
New guidance will continue to recommend students be spaced at least 3' apart, but with a new caveat: If maintaining such spacing would prevent schools from fully reopening, they could rely on a combination of other strategies like indoor masking, testing & enhanced ventilation.
The guidance recommends masks for all unvaccinated students, teachers or staff members.
The new guidelines still rely on quarantine as a prevention strategy for unvaccinated students when they are exposed to the virus.
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From 5/20 - Basics of case investigation/contact tracing. Caser/tracer calls to ask positive case how they’re feeling, symptoms they have & for names & numbers of anyone they’ve had close contact within 48 hours of developing symptoms or pos test (asx). seattletimes.com/seattle-news/h…
Close contacts (anyone within 6' of case for 15 min or more will be asked to quarantine for 10 to 14 days.
Positive case will be asked to isolate for 10 days from onset of symptoms or positive test if asymptomatic. Symptoms improving & no fever for 24 hrs, case released d 11
Close contacts encouraged to get tested 5-7 days after last exposure to positive case or immediately if they develop symptoms.
Family members who live w/positive case should get test. Household spread common. Negative household members are close contacts & quarantine 10-14 days
A contact is someone within 6' of a case for more than 15 minutes from two days before and during their symptomatic period.
Doesn't matter if you're wearing a mask.
Contacts have to quarantine for 14 days.
People in isolation or quarantine should only leave house to go to doctor/medical facility/get tested.
Negative test (nasal swab) will not "get you out" of quarantine.
Neither will a positive antibody (blood) test.
Asymptomatic people who test positive have to isolate for 10 days.
If you test positive and have symptoms, you will be in isolation for 10 days AND until you are fever free without fever reducing meds for 3 days AND your respiratory symptoms have mostly resolved.
Six principles of crisis communications from Sandman & @EIDGeek via @CIDRAP
1. Don’t over-reassure. 2. Proclaim uncertainty. 3. Validate emotions—your audience’s and your own. 4. Give people things to do. 5. Admit and apologize for errors. 6. Share dilemmas.
"Like most crises, the COVID-19 pandemic requires 3 kinds of risk communication. Before the crisis, the task is ‘precaution advocacy’ — warning a complacent public. We pretty much failed at that one."
"During the crisis, the task is ‘crisis communication’ - guiding a frightened public.
After the crisis or b/w waves of the crisis, the task is ‘outrage management’. That’s the one that’s on deck right now, officials face outraged criticism from all sides, much of it justified”
"Many developing nations with hot climates & young populations have escaped the worst, suggesting that temperature & demographics could be factors. But countries like Peru, Indonesia & Brazil, tropical countries in the throes of growing epidemics, throw cold water on that idea."
"The Dominican Republic has reported nearly 7,600 cases of the virus. Just across the border, Haiti has recorded about 85.
In Indonesia, thousands are believed to have died of the coronavirus. In nearby Malaysia, a strict lockdown has kept fatalities to about 100."
"Draconian social-distancing and early lockdown measures have clearly been effective, but Myanmar & Cambodia did neither & have reported few cases.
One theory: maybe the virus just hasn’t gotten to those countries yet. Russia & Turkey appeared to be fine until they were not."
Rare syndrome in #COVID19 positive children reported globally.
100+ cases of the unusual illness linked to Covid-19 have emerged in at least 6 countries resembling #KawasakiDisease including the US where several cases emerged in DC in past 24 hours.
Doctors reporting cases of rare but potentially lethal inflammatory syndrome in children that appears to be linked to coronavirus infections.
-100+ cases in 6 countries
-doctors in Britain, US, France, Italy, Spain & Switzerland investigating .theguardian.com/society/2020/a…
#US In less than 24 hours, Children's National Hospital in #DC has admitted several children w/ COVID-19 experiencing a constellation of symptoms that resemble "Kawasaki disease," rare inflammatory syndrome typically affecting children under the age of 5. abcnews.go.com/Health/childre…
⚠️Two coronavirus-infected people died in Santa Clara County on Feb. 6 & Feb. 17, the medical examiner revealed Tues, making them first documented COVID-19 fatalities in the US.
Until now, the first fatality was believed to have occurred in Kirkland, Wash., on Feb. 29
Officials previously had said the first Silicon Valley death was March 9. But the Santa Clara County medical examiner revealed Tuesday that people who died Feb. 6, Feb. 17 and March 6 also died of COVID-19.
“These 3 individuals died at home during a time when very limited testing was available only through the @CDCgov Testing criteria set by the CDC at the time restricted testing to only individuals with a known travel history and who sought medical care for specific symptoms.”