Rapid Sentinel Surveillance for COVID-19 — Santa Clara County, California, March 2020

Details

• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Personal Author:
  Zwald, Marissa L. ; Lin, Wen ; Sondermeyer Cooksey, Gail L. ; Weiss, Charles ; Suarez, Angela ; Fischer, Marc ; Bonin, Brandon J. ; Jain, Seema ; Langley, Gayle E. ; Park, Benjamin J. ; Moulia, Danielle ; Benedict, Rory ; Nguyen, Nang ; Han, George S.
• Corporate Authors:
  University of Washington. Department of Medicine. ; University of Washington. Department of Global Health. ; University of Washington. Department of Laboratory Medicine. ; Public Health – Seattle & King County. ; CDC COVID-19 Investigation Team. ; University of Washington School of Nursing. Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics. ; Era Living Retirement Communities. ; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division.
• Description:
  On February 27, 2020, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department (SCCPHD) identified its first case of coronaVirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) associated with probable community Transmission (i.e., infection among persons without a known exposure by travel or close contact with a patient with confirmed COVID-19). At the time the investigation began, tTesting guidance recommended focusing on persons with clinical findings of lower respiratory illness and travel to an affected area or an epidemiologic link to a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 case, or on persons hospitalized for severe respiratory disease and no alternative Diagnosis (1). To rapidly understand the extent of COVID-19 in the community, SCCPHD, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), and CDC began sentinel Surveillance in Santa Clara County. During March 5-14, 2020, four urgent care centers in Santa Clara County participated as sentinel sites. For this investigation, county residents evaluated for respiratory symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, or shortness of breath) who had no known risk for COVID-19 were identified at participating urgent care centers. A convenience sample of specimens that tested negative for influenza Virus was tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Among 226 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 23% had positive test results for influenza. Among patients who had negative test results for influenza, 79 specimens were tested for SARS-CoV-2, and 11% had evidence of infection. This sentinel Surveillance system helped confirm community Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Santa Clara County. As a result of these data and an increasing number of cases with no known source of Transmission, the county initiated a series of community mitigation strategies. Detection of community Transmission is critical for informing response activities, including tTesting criteria, quarantine guidance, investigation protocols, and community mitigation measures (2). Sentinel Surveillance in outpatient settings and emergency departments, implemented together with hospital-based Surveillance, Mortality Surveillance, and serologic surveys, can provide a robust approach to monitor the Epidemiology of COVID-19.
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Adult Aged Aged, 80 And Over Child Child, Preschool Clinical Laboratory Techniques Community-Acquired Infections CoronaVirus Infections COVID-19 Female Humans Infant Male Middle Aged Pandemics Pneumonia, Viral Sentinel Surveillance Young Adult

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• Source:
  MMWR Morbidity Mortal Weekly Rep. 69(14):419-421
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Pubmed ID:
  32271724
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7147906
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California
• Pages in Document:
  3 pdf pages
• Volume:
  69
• Issue:
  14
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:488166869c5b381ee9460e93440f59a3851b7fc3102dd9b4fc412274ac3c113fa91840871428ab4e0e3dafc7c609c3e61a3e06717e3da32474e0e6ff64b553fb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/87238/cdc_87238_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 71.22 KB ]