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CSTE COVID-19 Response Resource Repository

This repository is intended for jurisdictions to easily share resources related to the COVID-19 outbreak response. Please refer to the CDC website for the most up-to-date official guidance for public health departments. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The audience for this Basecamp is CSTE members working at STLT health departments participating in COVID-19 response activities. Appropriate resources to upload include health department-created guidance documents, resources, or other useful tools that may be helpful to other jurisdictions during their response. Forums may be used to pose questions for discussion among STLT jurisdictions. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Prior to using this Basecamp, please ensure you review the **INSTRUCTIONS FOR BASECAMP USAGE** folder, which contains "Basecamp Repository Instructions and Rules" and "How to Change Basecamp Notification Settings." Before posting in the Forums, please review the first posting “How to Use Forums” for rules and instructions. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ IMPORTANT: This Basecamp is not housed behind the CSTE firewall and users are not monitored by the CSTE National Office, therefore CSTE does not recommend uploading any sensitive resources. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Note: This Basecamp is not monitored by CSTE National Office staff on a daily basis. If you need to REPORT a Basecamp user, forum posting, or uploaded resource, please contact the National Office at preparedness@cste.org or call 770-458-3811 during normal business hours.
Beverly Christner, Senior Director of Operations at CSTEStephen Clay, Webmaster at CSTEAmanda Masters, Director of Workforce Development at CSTEMonica Schroeder, Program Analyst at CSTETom HauptDhara Shah, Director of Epidemiology Programs at CSTEVivian HawkinsErin MurrayBrooke Beaulieu, Surveillance/Informatics Program Analyst at CSTEMaria Patselikos, Evaluation Analyst at CSTELisa McHugh, Assistant Bureau Director, Bureau of Epidemiology Lynn SosaMarion Kainer, TNShundra Clinton, Member Services Coordinator at CSTEBecky Lampkins, Manager, Surveillance/Informatics Program at CSTE +265 others
Kim Cervantes
Kim Cervantes •
COVID-death criteria "investigation determination" — Hi all,  Looking at the new CSTE COVID-19 death reporting guidance, are other jurisdictions planning on classifying COVID-19 associated deaths based on the presence of COVID-19 on the death certificate only OR will you be supplementing the death certificate criteria with some form of “case invest... 		4
Bryon Backenson, Epidemiologist
Bryon Backenson •
Cross-State COVID Transfers? — Hi everyone...I brought this up with Marci and she suggested I throw it out for discussion here.  We’ve just mothballed CommCare, our dedicated COVID investigation and tracking software used here in NY, and it has led to a few questions.  One of these has to do with interstate transfers…have any...
Katherine McCombs
Katherine McCombs •
Reporting Frequency Changes by State? — As we look towards the start of the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the beginning of 2022, are any states considering changing their public case reporting to once a week instead of what you currently do? I know some states still report daily, others 5 days or 3 days a week. This is a list... 		2
Katherine McCombs
Katherine McCombs •
Whole genome Sequencing Legislation — Have any states drafted legislation or changed your regulations for WGS reporting to your state or local health departments? Willing to share the language? Did it pass? 		1
Katherine McCombs
Katherine McCombs •
MIS-A — Are any states publicly reporting summary data for cases of MIS-A? 
Karla Armenti
Karla Armenti •
Vaccination of Essential Workers — Hi everyone, We're interested in learning about how states are keeping track of vaccination of "essential workers" as they become eligible to get the vaccine. This question has a few parts to it: • How do states "check" eligibility of specific priority groups (i.e. those meeting criteria as an es... 		6
Lynn Sosa
Lynn Sosa •
Classifying cases more than a year apart — In CT, we have only been counting a person as having a positive case once within the year. We are almost upon the date of our first case in our surveillance system. Thinking about whether we should start creating new events or continue keeping all new positive and negative tests within the same e... 		3
Lynn Sosa
Lynn Sosa •
"False positive" antigen results — Hi all, Connecticut is wondering how states are handling antigen results that are determined or assessed to be "false positive." The common scenario for us is the asymptomatic person (without known exposure, so low pretest probability) who had an antigen test that is positive and then subsequentl... 		7
Craig Conover, Medical advisor, Chicago DPH, IRB Chair IL DPH
Craig Conover •
Digital contact tracing tools — WaPo: A covid-fighting tool is buried in your phone. Turn it on. Millions of Americans now have access to free, anonymous coronavirus exposure notifications. Too bad so few people use them. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/18/coronavirus-app-exposure-alerts/ Do states that are ...
Katherine McCombs
Katherine McCombs •
COVID-19 Death Associated Mortality and Classification — COVID-19 Death Associated Mortality and Classification: Curious what other states are using to define a death associated with COVID-19 in regards to how many days after symptom onset (or test date) you would classify a death as COVID-19 associated or not? Initially there was some discussion of 30... 		1
Lisa McHugh, Assistant Bureau Director, Bureau of Epidemiology
Lisa McHugh •
Re-infections/Positive After 3 Months — How is everyone handling those who are turning up positive more than 3 months after their initial infection/positive? This has been problematic especially in long term care facilities with serial testing. Are decisions being made solely if clinical symptoms are present or anyone with a positive a... 		5
Lisa McHugh, Assistant Bureau Director, Bureau of Epidemiology
Lisa McHugh •
Re-infections/Positive After 3 Months — How is everyone handling those who are turning up positive more than 3 months after their initial infection/positive? This has been problematic especially in long term care facilities with serial testing. Are decisions being made solely if clinical symptoms are present or anyone with a positive a... 		3
Kim Cervantes
Kim Cervantes •
Classifying cases with positive Ag/negative PCR — Hi - in scenarios where a negative PCR test collected within 48 hours of a positive Ag test is considered confirmatory, i.e., no public health action taken, how are others classifying and reporting these cases - as Probable per the case definition, or as Not a Case?  		2
Sherri Davidson
Sherri Davidson •
Super spreader detection — What investigation questions (or methods) has your jurisdiction added to improve detection of group activities, shared exposures, and super spreader events?   		4
Whitney Thomas
Whitney Thomas •
Data Collection Tools — Hi everyone, I was wondering which programs everyone is using for data collection.  Our current programs are being overloaded due to the COVID response and our conversations with IT have lead to a solution to combine both Quickbase and REDCap.  I have experience with REDCap, but I was wondering i... 		1
Lynn Sosa
Lynn Sosa •
"False positive" antigen results — Hi all, Connecticut is wondering how states are handling antigen results that are determined or assessed to be "false positive." The common scenario for us is the asymptomatic person (without known exposure, so low pretest probability) who had an antigen test that is positive and then subsequentl... 		6
Lynn Sosa
Lynn Sosa •
"False positive" antigen results — Hi all, Connecticut is wondering how states are handling antigen results that are determined or assessed to be "false positive." The common scenario for us is the asymptomatic person (without known exposure, so low pretest probability) who had an antigen test that is positive and then subsequentl... 		7
Clay Van Houten, ID Epi Manager at Wyoming Department of Health
Clay Van Houten •
Contact Tracing Companies — Hi Everyone, Has anyone utilized the services of a contact tracing company for COVID-19? I receive lots of unsolicited emails from various companies each day, but wondered if anyone had experience where a company proved helpful. Thanks! 		4
Angela Dunn, UT
Angela Dunn •
Abbott BinaxNOW rapid antigen tests — Hi all - We have been told by HHS to expect 1.5 million Abbott BinaxNow tests over the next 3 months or so in Utah. And HHS recommendations are to use the tests for K-12 and critical infrastructure workers. Given that they still require a nasal swab, we are considering using them for specific out... 		4
Katherine McCombs
Katherine McCombs •
Guidance on college student address — Does anyone have guidance on where to record college student cases of COVID-19 when they arrive on campus and test positive within 14 days? If they are recent arrivals (<7 days) do you record them at their home address? More than 7 days, at college? If they have a known exposure at college even i...
Lisa McHugh, Assistant Bureau Director, Bureau of Epidemiology
Lisa McHugh •
Antigen Based Testing — Looking for any analysis regarding performance of antigen based testing platforms. Has anyone does testing in the field and then validated in a state public health lab (or other trusted laboratory)? 		2
Edward Lifshitz
Edward Lifshitz •
Monitoring School Data — In NJ, we don't have a systemic way of collecting school illness data. As schools begin to open we are continuing discussions about the best ways to collect this information, and what information should be included.  What data is your health department either currently collecting, or planning to... 		2
Courtney Tillman, Epidemiologist at Wyoming Department of Health
Courtney Tillman •
Quarantine contacts wearing face coverings? — Hello, A two part question: 1. Are any states still writing official quarantine orders for contacts? 2. If you are, are you quarantining those where the case and contact were both wearing face coverings for the duration of the exposure? Thanks so much! This group has been very helpful.  		5
Hayley Young
Hayley Young •
Out-of-State Resident Testing Data — How does your state handle data for testing done in your state for out-of-state residents (for various metrics but particularly for testing volume)?
Lisa McHugh, Assistant Bureau Director, Bureau of Epidemiology
Lisa McHugh •
Re-infections/Positive After 3 Months — How is everyone handling those who are turning up positive more than 3 months after their initial infection/positive? This has been problematic especially in long term care facilities with serial testing. Are decisions being made solely if clinical symptoms are present or anyone with a positive a... 		3
Tom Haupt
Tom Haupt •
Nursing Home Admissions During a COVID Outbreak — Wisconsin follows a standard practice to recommend restricting new admissions to nursing homes who have an any type of outbreak for 2 incubation periods (28 days for COVID). 1. Does your state restrict new admissions to nursing homes during an outbreak? 2. If so are restriction of new admission...
Tom Haupt
Tom Haupt •
POC Rapid Test Results — Are positive point of care rapid test results (example SOFIA) reportable in your state? Are negative point of care rapid test results reportable in your state? Do you use point of care rapid test results in your calculation of Percent positive COVID tests 		5
Courtney Tillman, Epidemiologist at Wyoming Department of Health
Courtney Tillman •
Remove from probable if negative PCR? — Hi All, Just curious if any states have protocols for what to do if a probable case (epi linked w/ appropriate symptoms) is tested and tests negative. Do you keep them as probable or remove them based on the negative? If you remove them, do you have a specific time period that negative test must... 		2
Mimi Huynh, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mimi Huynh •
Thresholds for School Reopenings | Resource Sharing — Please feel free to share considerations and protocols developed at your state/local jurisdiction on thresholds utilized to make decisions related to reopening of schools (K-12 and/or institutions of higher education). See here for CDC's School Settings considerations landing page: https://www.... 		10
Lynn Sosa
Lynn Sosa •
Updates on case definition? — Hi all, Just wondering if anyone has insight into an updated case definition?  In particular, looking for updates on how to handle serology and perhaps timing for defining a new case? I've seen some discussions re: outbreak definitions but nothing on an updated case definition which we are very ... 		5
Mia Israel, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mia Israel •
COVID-19 Risk Dial: Resource from Lincoln, NE — See below for a link to a new resource from the Lincoln, NE COVID Team:  The COVID-19 Risk Dial provides a summary of current conditions in the Lincoln-Lancaster County community. Each color incorporates federal and national guidance published by top public health experts and is coupled with spe...
Jessica Arrazola, Director of Educational Strategy at CSTE
Jessica Arrazola •
Contact Tracing Training & Resource Needs — CSTE has been participating in a national collaboration of nonprofits to identify and support needs for contact tracing.  Training for the contact tracers, disease investigation specialists, and epidemiologists is of particular interest.  Please respond to this forum post with any contact tracing... 		1
Lynn Sosa
Lynn Sosa •
Recovery definition — Hi everyone, Wondering what definitions people are using for defining "recovered"? Lynn 		10
Mia Israel, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mia Israel •
Pandemic Ethics Dashboard: Resource from UNC Gillings SPH — Check out the Pandemic Ethics Dashboard, a new resource from UNC Gillings School of Public Health. The purpose of this dashboard is to make existing guidance and consensus thinking on public health ethics during a pandemic accessible and easily searchable to public health responders and to polic...
Mia Israel, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mia Israel •
CSTE COVID-19 Call Topic Submission Form — CSTE supports state, tribal, local and territorial (STLT) epidemiologists during public health emergency responses by providing forums for bidirectional communication between federal response agencies and CSTE members, information and resource sharing, and technical assistance on the epidemiologi...
Karla Armenti
Karla Armenti •
PPE for City Workers — Our local health department is asking about the best protections for City workers through 2020 (including police, medical first responders, pressurized and open sewer workers, and undertakers).    They are looking at P100s and full face masks with replaceable filters/cartridges. They want to go t... 		2
Mia Israel, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mia Israel •
Summer Camp/Activity Guidance — Please share any comments related to or examples of summer camp/summer activity guidance in this thread. 
Erin Murray
Erin Murray •
Working with COVID ELR Data — I am working with all of our COVID ELR data (positives and non-positives are reportable) to answer several questions, e.g., testing volume, people tested, etc. as well as set up more long-term surveillance using these data. I've made a lot of progress with respect to data cleaning and deduplicati... 		7
Lisa McHugh, Assistant Bureau Director, Bureau of Epidemiology
Lisa McHugh •
Case Definition — How is everyone handling serology? We are placing them in a holding area until we know more. I've heard from several other states who are doing the same thing.    How is everyone interpreting the probable case definition "Meets clinical criteria AND epidemiologic evidence with no confirmatory lab... 		11
Lisa McHugh, Assistant Bureau Director, Bureau of Epidemiology
Lisa McHugh •
Onset Dates — We have several cases who were tested in late March but who had unresolved symptoms or symptoms with limited resolution that began in mid- to late-February. Anyone encountering similar issues and if so how are you dealing with assigning onset dates? Given what we know – I think – it’s possible th... 		1
Mia Israel, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mia Israel •
Interstate Transfer of Cases — CDC has received inquiries on best practices for interstate case transfers. How does your jurisdiction transfer cases across state lines, and do you have any best practices that can be shared with CDC?
Farah Ahmed, State Epidemiologist
Farah Ahmed •
Statewide sampling strategy — Has anyone developed a statewide sampling strategy that takes into account all of the various tests that are available or are coming online soon (traditional 4-6 hour PCR, rapid PCR, antigen, antibody, etc)? Kansas is a largely rural state with urban pockets. I want to strategically plan for how ...
Meredith Towle
Meredith Towle •
Disinfecting solutions — Has anyone developed more comprehensive guidelines on homemade disinfecting solutions or practices? As supplies of manufactured disinfectants are running low and even bleach is hard to find, we are getting questions about this. The CDC guidelines only include bleach solutions (at least, that I co... 		6
Mia Israel, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mia Israel •
Modeling — Please post questions or discussion related to Modeling topics here.  		5
Mia Israel, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mia Israel •
PPE and Supply Shortages — Please feel free to post questions or discussion related to PPE and Supply Shortages here.
Mia Israel, Program Analyst at CSTE
Mia Israel •
How to Use Forums — Welcome to the CSTE COVID-19 Forums. This is where we hope you will post items for active discussion with fellow STLT members responding to the outbreak.   Please be sure to follow the forum rules below and note that these forums may only be periodically moderated by staff: 1. Be respectful. Plea... 		1