July 1, 2020

MCAL Members,

Thank you for joining us on the General Membership Zoom/Call today.  I hope you took away helpful information.  I also want to offer my thanks to Cathy Sunlin, VP of Regulatory Services for joining us and handling questions of a clinical nature.  Among the questions there were a couple of resources that some requested a resend of.  Cathy has provided those in this update.

If you missed today's General Membership Call, you may access a recording of the call by clicking HERE.

 

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As always, we are here to help as we can and to support you in every way possible.  I am also sending this update out to my email address list in case some of you are not receiving the updates from our new distribution system.  Please let me know if we are having any communication challenges.

Warm regards,

Linda

 

CDC Quarantine Guidance

CDC recommends 14 day of quarantine with suspected contact as below:

CDC recommends 14 days of quarantine after exposure based on the time it takes to develop illness if infected. Thus, it is possible that a person known to be infected could leave isolation earlier than a person who is quarantined because of the possibility they are infected.

The full guidance can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/disposition-in-home-patients.html

 

MDHHS Guidance Related to Prior Positive Tests

In the Nursing Facility Testing Guidance, MDHHS shares that residents and staff who have previously tested positive are not required to be retested.  See the highlighted guidance at the bottom of page 4.

Additionally, in discussions with public health officials at MDHHS, they have shared it is their perspective that once an individual has contracted COVID-19 and recovered, the likelihood of recurrent infection is negligible.   

 

Most of Michigan Remains at Phase 4 For Now Per Whitmer

Governor Whitmer shared today that despite her intent to move the state to Phase 5 before July 4th, with the recent surge in positive cases the rest of the state will not join the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula just yet.  Yesterday, the Lansing Region was moved to High Risk status and the Grand Rapids Region moved to Medium High Risk status.  Whitmer is awaiting additional data and has shared more restrictions may be re-imposed based on the surge.  In the meantime, she and Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Chief Medical Executive, continue to encourage the use of masks in public areas or when around others. 

 

For questions or concerns please contact Linda Lawther at LindaLawther@michcal.com.