On June 3, 2020, the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health sent Health Alert/Update #166 to health care providers, hospitals and local health departments in the state. Local health departments passed it on to providers in their area. The alert covered four topics.
Cleaning of protective equipment
The pandemic had cut the world supply of personal protective equipment (PPE). To bridge the gap, the West Virginia National Guard ran a program to clean used N95 respirators. The Guard and West Virginia University built a process that used vaporized hydrogen peroxide. Guard trucks picked up used PPE from county drop-off points on daily routes and returned the cleaned PPE to the same points. Providers and first responders contacted their local emergency manager for the pickup schedule.
Case, lab and death reporting
- Positive COVID-19 cases had to be reported to the local health department of the patient’s home county at once. Providers sent case reports by fax.
- The state no longer required a phone call to the local health department for each suspected or confirmed case.
- All labs had to report negative COVID-19 results to the state by electronic lab reporting.
- Deaths related to COVID-19 had to be reported to the local health department within 24 hours, by phone or fax.
Online test requests
Providers could ask for COVID-19 testing through the state Office of Laboratory Services with an online form, for patients who met the public health testing criteria. An approved request got an authorization number, which had to go on the specimen form. Testing through the state lab was free.
MIS-C in children
The CDC had issued a health advisory on May 14, 2020, about multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) linked to COVID-19. The first US cases were reported in early May in New York City. The state asked providers to report suspected cases to the local health department at once. The alert described a suspected case as a person under 21 with fever, signs of inflammation and severe illness that needed a hospital stay, with several organ systems involved, no other likely diagnosis, and current or recent COVID-19 infection or exposure in the four weeks before symptoms started.
See also Health Update #165 from March 2020.
This guidance is from June 2020. It is kept here as a record and is not current advice. Check current guidance from the CDC or your doctor.