COVID-19 Health Alert # 15:
Bureau of Communicable Diseases, August 27, 2020
Summary
- Aggressive case finding through testing all individuals with high risk exposures to COVID-19 remains a key strategy for containing further spread of infection.
- On August 25, the CDC revised its website to indicate that asymptomatic people who have been in close contact of a person with COVID-19 do not necessarily need a test, “unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.”
- At this time, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) continues to recommend that ALL persons who were in close contact with a person infected with COVID-19 (defined as being within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes) should be tested, regardless of symptoms.
Dear Colleagues,
During the past two weeks, 65 out of Wisconsin’s 72 counties are reporting high levels of COVID-19 disease activity, defined as greater than 100 newly confirmed cases per 100,000 residents. In the months of July and August, Wisconsin reported an average of 765 confirmed case per day, compared to 346 cases per day during May and June. During this severe phase of the COVID-19 epidemic, the disease containment activities of testing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine are more important than ever, and require close collaboration among health care and public health partners.
The scale-up of COVID-19 laboratory testing capacity has been a success story in Wisconsin’s pandemic response. While test availability is still not sufficiently widespread nor equitably distributed across the state, the estimated capacity of over 26,000 tests per day is a dramatic increase from several months ago. The average number of tests conducted per day during August in Wisconsin has been 15,922 which is less than 60% of the state’s estimated capacity of 26,571. Although some barriers to accessing testing still exist, there is no current shortage of testing that requires modifying Wisconsin’s strategy for widespread testing. Aggressive case finding through testing all individuals with symptoms of, or high risk exposures to COVID-19 remains a key strategy for containing further spread of infection.
At this time, Wisconsin DHS continues to strongly recommend COVID-19 testing for all individuals in the following groups:
- People with any symptoms of COVID-19
- People who have been in close contact of a person with COVID-19, regardless of symptoms.
- People who have been instructed by a public health agency or a health care provider to get tested for the purposes of a public health investigation or infection control activities.
Wisconsin DHS will continue to monitor COVID-19 test availability and will support public health, health care and laboratory partners working to implement the response strategy.
Thank you for your collaboration in this effort.
Sincerely,
Ryan Westergaard, MD, PhD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer and State Epidemiologist for Communicable Diseases
Wisconsin Department of Health Services
