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Last week the state health department set a goal of testing an additional 30,000 to 60,000 people over the next three weekends for the SARS CoV2 virus. The goal is to test between 10,000 and 20,000 people starting yesterday and also the next 2 Saturdays (May 9 and May 16). 

They said testing will take place at drive-thru and onsite locations across the state. The testing locations, hours and registration information can be found at azhealth.gov/testingblitz.

The supply of test kits and specimen transport media must have gotten a lot better in the last week in order to make a commitment like this. Up until now, the availability of testing kits has been an impediment to wider testing.

It sure will be interesting to see the surveillance data that comes out of the Saturday testing.  While I expect that it’ll result in an increase in cases- I bet it also finds a lower percent positive rate because lower risk people are being tested.  The ADHS Data Dashboard hasn’t been updated yet this am… but you can check back on the dashboard to see how that blitz thing worked out.

Also, remember that the chart that shows new hospitalizations per day is really the most important surveillance tool because it’s less dependent on ephemeral testing capacity.

Presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infections and Transmission in a Skilled Nursing Facility

CONCLUSIONS: Rapid and widespread transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was demonstrated in this skilled nursing facility. More than half of residents with positive test results were asymptomatic at the time of testing and most likely contributed to transmission. Infection-control strategies focused solely on symptomatic residents were not sufficient to prevent transmission after SARS-CoV-2 introduction into this facility.

The stay at home orders and other social distancing measures have been working to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19 cases across the country (including in Arizona). But to be honest, ‘stay at home’ type orders aren’t sustainable over the long run because of the collateral damage that these interventions cause in the economy (especially among folks that work in the service sector).

A much more refined tool that has far fewer consequences for the economy is ‘contact tracing’. Over the longer term, case identification and contact tracing is the key to limiting the spread of COVID-19 (until we get a vaccine or reach herd-immunity). In a nutshell, contact tracing involves:

1) Quick and easy testing to identify folks that are infected with an agent (in this case SARS CoV2);

2) Quickly contacting that person and ensuring that they understand that they need to go into Isolation (and coaching them how);

3) Working with the infected person to identify their close contacts over the period in which they were communicable;

4) Finding those contacts and letting them know that they’re at risk for developing the disease; and

5) Helping the contacts to understand that they need to quarantine for a period of time to prevent the spread to others.

It’s a labor intensive process that will require lots of new public health staff, and those folks will need training.

Fortunately, new on-line training is now available. Today, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials announced they have developed on-demand training for entry-level COVID-19 contact tracers. The course, called Making Contact: A Training for COVID-19 Contact Tracers supports ongoing public health agency efforts to prepare new contact tracers for their work of helping identify COVID-19 positive cases and those with whom they have been in close contact.

Folks that take the initiative and complete the training on their own will be very good candidates to be hired by local public health agencies as contact tracers. Here’s a link to that training! 

The FDA launched its Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program last week which aims to move new treatments to patients as soon as possible while also measuring the safety and effectiveness of these programs. Clinical trials on 72 potential therapies are underway.

CDC posted a new website that has a variety of resources for state, tribal, local, and territorial health agencies to help them think through intervention relaxation criteria. Topics include infection prevention and control, laboratory capacity, community mitigation, financial resources, surveillance and data analytics, contact tracing, and communication materials. It includes resources from CDC, other federal agencies, the private sector, academia, and non-profit organizations.

Encouraging Study Results for an Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine

Link: Rapid Development of An Inactivated Vaccine for SARS-CoV-2

Researchers in the above study developed a pilot-scale production of a purified inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Administration of the vaccine induced SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies in mice, rats and non-human primates.

The antibodies produced in the animals neutralized 10 different SARS-CoV-2 strains. Immunization with two different doses  provided partial or complete protection (in macaques).  Systematic evaluation of the vaccine that it’s safe in macaques.

Early data to be sure, but encouraging.