LAC DPH Advisory: Ambulatory Patients with COVID-19; Healthcare Personnel Monitoring

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LAC DPH) issued a health advisory on March 28, 2020. This advisory provides guidance on isolation and quarantine recommendations given the March 25 health officer isolation order. It also gives guidance on health care personnel monitoring, isolation and exposure.

Read the full LAC DPH Health Advisory: Ambulatory Patients with COVID-19; Healthcare Personnel Monitoring.

Because guidance for the prevention and management of COVID-19 may change, providers and staff are encouraged to visit the Los Angeles Health Alert Network (LAHAN) website frequently. You can also subscribe to the LAHAN to receive alerts, advisories, and updates from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Key Messages

• Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LAC DPH)is asking clinicians to ensure that outpatients with presumed and confirmed COVID-19 self-isolate and that their close contacts are quarantined.

• A minority of outpatients with COVID-19 will rapidly deteriorate. Patients with risk factors for severe illness, such as older age and certain underlying medical conditions, who are managed in the outpatient setting should be closely monitored and provided with clear instructions on when to seek immediate medical attention.

• All healthcare personnel (HCP) should monitor themselves twice daily for fever or respiratory symptoms because of the potential for unidentified exposure to COVID-19.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a HAN today, Severe Illness Associated with Using Non-Pharmaceutical Chloroquine Phosphate to Prevent and Treat Coronavirus Disease 2019. The CDC asks clinicians to counsel patients on the importance of taking medications only as prescribed and as directed by healthcare providers and to discourage patients from using nonpharmaceutical chloroquine phosphate. At this time, there are no routinely available pharmaceutical products that are FDA-approved for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19.