Health Notice: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Updated Priorities for Testing Patients with Suspected COVID-19 Infection and Updated Prioritization of Contact Tracing by DC Health

District of Columbia sent this bulletin at 04/21/2020 03:09 PM EDT

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CPPE

April 21, 2020 

Health Notice for District of Columbia Healthcare Providers

Updated Procedures for Testing Patients with Suspected COVID-19

Summary

Healthcare providers in the District of Columbia may choose to pursue testing for SARS-CoV2 through DC Department of Forensic Science Public Health Laboratory (DFS PHL), commercial laboratories, or hospital-based laboratories. Starting April 21st, COVID-19 testing through the DC Department of Forensic Science Public Health Laboratory (DFS PHL) will no longer require approval by the DC Department of Health (DC Health). Healthcare providers can directly order testing through the DFS PHL without calling DC Health for approval or obtaining a PUI ID number. Healthcare providers should continue to report positive results via the Notifiable Disease and Condition Case Report Form on the DC Health Infectious Disease website (https://dchealth.dc.gov/service/infectious-diseases).

  • Clinicians should take into consideration the testing priorities listed in this health notice when evaluating a patient with respiratory symptoms and continue testing for other more common respiratory viruses.
  • Clinicians should appropriately guide their patients on home quarantine while test results are pending.
  • Clinicians should be prepared to provide patients who test positive for COVID-19 with home-isolation guidelines and information for household and close contacts (DC Health will continue contact tracing specific situations and high priority groups).

The complete health notice can be viewed on our Health Notices website.

Please contact us at coronavirus@dc.gov with any questions regarding COVID-19 in the District of Columbia.