Expansion and Clarification of COVID-19 Specimen Collection and Testing Prioritization Criteria

Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services sent this bulletin at 04/08/2020 03:43 PM EDT

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Attached is a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Memorandum regarding Expansion and clarification of COVID-19 Specimen Collection and Testing Prioritization Criteria.  You may also find the memo here: Coronavirus>>Persons of Interest. If you would like to receive such communications directly, please sign-up for MIHAN updates by visiting their website: https://www.michiganhan.org/. 

The memo was distributed through the Michigan Health Alert Network (MIHAN). It clarifies COVID-19 testing prioritization criteria and is effective as of 8:00 a.m. April 8, 2020.  MDHHS is sending this communication to you because the memo clarifies the definitions of “Healthcare Facility Workers with Symptoms” (priority 1) and “Patients in Long-term Care Facilities" (priority 2). 

According to the memo: 

  • “Healthcare Facility Workers with Symptoms” include all workers within a healthcare facility, not just providers of direct healthcare services. This includes in-home medical aides and/or direct healthcare service providers to vulnerable populations.
  • ‘Patients in long-term care facilities [LTCs] with symptoms’ shall be understood to include any patient or resident with symptoms in high-risk congregate living arrangements, as in but not limited to LTCs. High-risk congregate living arrangements include those with vulnerable populations, living in close quarters, where the introduction of COVID-19 could result in rapidly-developing clusters of cases within the facility.

    These arrangements include: LTCs; skilled nursing facilities (SNFs); dormitories; jails/prisons; juvenile justice facilities; residential foster care settings; adult foster care (AFC); homeless shelters; residential behavioral health settings; other group-home living arrangements; and other institutional settings.

This means that staff and residents of long-term care facilities as defined above who have symptoms of COVID-19 are prioritized for testing.


For the latest information on Michigan’s response to COVID-19, please visit https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98178_98156---,00.html.
You may also email our Community Health Emergency Coordination Center at: checcdeptcoor@michigan.gov.