Key Points

December 02, 2020

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• In today’s Recommendations for Industry, we discuss this week’s 50-State Risk Matrix. This week, things seem to be getting better with  the general trend going down. But this may be due to increased stringency or lack of testing over the holiday. The next 10 days will be very telling on what post-Thanksgiving trends will be like.

• The CDC has updated its quarantine recommendations to allow for a shortened period for close contacts who show no symptoms. According to the new recommendations released Wednesday, Dec. 2, CDC allows for the following options (as long as specific additional protective criteria are met)

  • Quarantine can end after Day 10 without testing and if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring. With this strategy, residual post-quarantine transmission risk is estimated to be about 1% with an upper limit of about 10%.

  • Quarantine can end after Day 7 if a diagnostic specimen tests negative and no symptoms were reported during daily monitoring. With this strategy, the residual post-quarantine transmission risk is estimated to be about 5% with an upper limit of about 12%.

• As of today, the UK is the first country in the world to approve usage of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Distribution and implementation are expected to start next week. The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the two-dose vaccine (for 20 million people). 

• On Tuesday, an independent panel that advises the CDC recommended that “residents and employees of nursing homes and similar facilities” will be among the first in the U.S. to receive the COVID-19 vaccine (NYT). Additionally, health care workers and those especially at-risk of exposure are on that list, too. As CIDRAP reports, there won’t be enough vaccine doses to cover everyone in the first set of vaccinations.

• In Case You Missed It:

  • In Monday’s Recommendations for Industry, we discussed the current COVID-19 pandemic’s third wave. Will recent lessons learned bring about new quarantine or isolation scenarios?

  • A systematic review and meta-analysis in The Lancet found that researchers could not detect live virus beyond day 9 of illness, even with persistently high viral loads. In fact, SARS-CoV-2 viral load in the upper respiratory tract appeared to peak in the first week of illness.  This new analysis may cause the US CDC to consider shortening isolation guidelines in coming weeks.

  • Last Wednesday, we discussed a few of the vaccines that hold promise to protect us against COVID-19.

  • The CDC will likely recommend shortening the coronavirus quarantine period from 14-days to less days with a testing-out strategy (NPR). This announcement tracks with our Industry update from last Friday; read TAG’s take here from last week.

  • On Monday, Moderna planned to apply for an EUA through the FDA for its COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna has confirmed that its COVID-19 vaccine has 94% efficacy.

  • While its vaccine has not received an EUA from FDA yet, Pfizer has begun preparing shipments of its COVID-19 vaccine from Belgium to the U.S., in preparation for distribution. This is in addition to those vaccines produced in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

  • Recent CDC studies have found that fewer than 10% of Americans had contracted COVID-19 through September. While there were some wide variances, another CDC study found increasing declines in antibody levels post-infection that may negatively represent the number of previously infected individuals. CIDRAP summarizes these findings here.

  • A recent article provides five recommendations as guideposts to ensure that policies and practices at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels support equity, transparency, accountability, availability, and access to upcoming COVID-19 vaccines

  • In California, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board has proposed a COVID-19-related emergency standard that may take effect soon. Some of the requirements include a written COVID-19 prevention program; notifying potential COVID-19 close-contact exposures within one (1) business day; ensuring physical distancing measures; requiring employers to provide face coverings and ensure their wearing; new return-to-work guidelines; and new testing requirements especially for businesses with multiple outbreaks within their business. Read a summary here.

  • The FDA published a comprehensive new page with answers to frequently asked questions about face masks, surgical masks, and respirators.

  • The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Reich Lab has put together a COVID-19 Forecasting Hub that, based on the current data, can provide a predictive model of how future cases of COVID-19 may turn in your area. TAG has reached similar conclusions and predictive thoughts. 

The “COVID-19 Symptoms Comparison Chart” is now downloadable at our COVID-19 Resources page.

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