HJAR Jul/Aug 2020

38 JUL / AUG 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS DIRECTOR’S DESK touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unclean hands; stay home when you are sick; cover all coughs and sneezes with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash and wash your hands; if tissue is not available, cough and sneeze into your elbow instead of on your hand; and clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces with a regular household cleaning spray or wipe. Avoid shaking hands. Please visit https://www.healthy.arkansas . gov/programs-services/topics/novel- coronavirus for more guidance on COVID-19. An ADH call center is available to answer questions from healthcare providers and the public. For urgent and non-urgent calls during normal business hours (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), please call 1-800-803-7847. After normal business hours, urgent calls needing immediate response should be made to 501- 661-2136. Healthcare providers may also contact the Physician Hotline at 1-844-930- 3023 or ADH.Covid19.Providers@arkansas. gov. n know to expect these calls, and to provide information to the contact tracer. People can contact theADH COVID-19 Hotline at 1-800- 803-7847 if they have questions about the validity of someone calling to interview them, either as a case or a contact. Most of the contact tracing is completed over the phone. With the high volume of people needed to be reached due to COVID-19, more staff and volunteers are needed to complete this work. The ADH is currently ramping up efforts to increase the agency’s capacity to conduct contract tracing. This includes using the Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA) Alert system, which is an automated service for monitoring, alerting, and reporting. Patients and any contacts identified will be contacted through the SARAAlert each day during their quarantine or isolation period. They can pick the time of day they are contacted, and how they are contacted. The best way to prevent the spread of infectious diseases is to wash your hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer; avoid close contact with sick people; avoid activity that officials use to track and prevent the spread of an infectious disease. When a patient is confirmed to have a disease, public health staff work with the patient to recall everyone they had close contact with during the time frame they may have been infectious. Anyone who has been exposed is contacted by public health staff and instructed to take measures to prevent further spread of the illness, such as staying home and practicing social distancing. It is important to remember that patients with COVID-19 will be asked to isolate, and their contacts will be asked to quarantine for 14 days. Isolation is generally 10 days after the onset of symptoms, as long as they have been without fever for three days, and their symptoms are improving. The ADH has done contact tracing for many years for all reportable infectious diseases in the state, but with COVID-19 those efforts have been amplified. When a positive case is identified, physicians should let their patient know what to expect after they are diagnosed, and to expect a call from the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH). It is important for physicians to let people “The Arkansas Department of Health is currently ramping up efforts to increase the agency’s capacity to conduct contract tracing. This includes using the Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA) Alert system, which is an automated service for monitoring, alerting, and reporting.”