FEDERAL NEWS

New COVID Community Guidance (NOT FOR HEALTHCARE SETTINGS)
CDC released updated COVID guidance today for community settings. Guidance updates are based on this Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (See details from CDC in item #12 below.) The new guidance does not apply to healthcare settings, though we are told we are getting closer to seeing updates for healthcare settings too. There has been confusion in the past about which guidance different LeadingAge member settings should follow. Nursing homes (including residents, staff, and visitors) will continue to follow the healthcare settings guidance. CDC is currently in discussion about which guidance other settings, such as assisted living, should follow. We will share updates as they are released.

MONKEYPOX NEWS

CDC Guidance on Monkeypox
Keeping monkeypox on your radar. . .don’t forget to review the CDC recommendations here. While you may be watching for monkeypox related to resident sexual contact, be mindful of other ways in which this virus might spread, including other physical contact or high-contact care. Be mindful of exposure between residents, residents and visitors, and residents and staff.

LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS

Friday Webinars
Get the latest on COVID-19, CMS, the Legislature and more each Friday at 10 AM. This week we are going to feature Ceilidh Evans from Alliantgroup who will discuss the Employee Retention Credit. If you haven’t registered for future calls, you can do so here. If you would like to listen to updates you have missed, visit this page.

LEADINGAGE NATIONAL NEWS

LeadingAge Coronavirus Calls Next Week – All calls are at 2:30 PM CT

• Can providers really use TikTok for frontline staff training? And COVID data of all kinds – how can it help us with staffing and inform our thinking about how to support team members?On Monday, August 15th, Teepa Snowwill join the Update Call to talk about her Positive Approach to Care and her use of TikTok videos as training resources. We’ll hear how providers have used the videos and some ways to support exhausted staff members. She’ll also share her thoughts about the impact of the pandemic on people with brain change.
• Ashley Kirzinger, Director of Survey Methodology at the Kaiser Family Foundation will return to the LeadingAge Update Call on Wednesday, August 17^th,she will discuss new data KFF has collected on vaccines, the differential impact of the pandemic on different groups within the population and related equity issues and talk about how analyses of the data can support aging services providers as they work to improve staff recruitment and retention. If you haven’t registered for LeadingAge Update Calls, you can do so here. You can also find previous call recordings here. Note that to access recordings of the calls you need a LeadingAge password. Any staff member of any LeadingAge member organization can set up a password to access previous calls and other “members only” content.

Register Now and Save $150 to Join Us in Denver
Early bird pricing for the 2022 LeadingAge Annual Meeting + EXPO ends this Thursday, August 18th. Register now and you’ll save up to 20%! Plus, with airfares expected to drop this fall, you may save even more. You can’t afford to miss experts from across aging services for four days of education, networking, special events, and more.

RESOURCES

Summary of Guidance for Minimizing the Impact of COVID-19 on Individual Persons, Communities, and Health Care Systems
CDC published an MMWR on guidance for minimizing the impact of COVID-19 on individual persons, communities, and health care systems . High levels of immunity and availability of effective COVID-19 prevention and management tools have reduced the risk for medically significant illness and death. To prevent medically significant COVID-19 illness and death, persons must understand their risk, take steps to protect themselves and others with vaccines, therapeutics, and nonpharmaceutical interventions when needed, receive testing and wear masks when exposed, receive testing if symptomatic, and isolate for ≥5 days if infected. Medically significant illness, death, and health care system strain can be reduced through vaccination and therapeutics to prevent severe illness, complemented by use of multiple prevention methods to reduce exposure risk and an emphasis on protecting persons at high risk for severe illness.

COVID-19 Self-Test Data: Challenges and Opportunities
CDC published an MMWR on COVID-19 Self-test data. COVID-19 self-test use has increased but reporting of results is not required. During October 31, 2021 to June 11, 2022, 10.7 million test results were voluntarily reported by users of four manufacturers’ self-tests; during that period, 361.9 million laboratory-based and point-of-care test results were reported. Completeness of reporting demographic variables and trends in percent positivity were similar across test types. Self-tests are a valuable risk-reduction tool that can guide individual actions, but they currently offer limited utility in enhancing public health surveillance. Laboratory-based and point-of-care test result data, in combination with other COVID-19 surveillance information, continue to provide strong situational awareness.

Potential New COVID Testing Resource
Operation Expanded Testing, funded by HHS, CDC, and the Department of Defense, is now extending services and resources to long-term care facilities and other congregate settings. The program is funded through December 31, 2022 and you can learn more here. The program is operated through regional contractor hubs and it appears that each region operates independently. For this reason, we encourage all LeadingAge members to check out the CDC page and contact the regional contractor hub to determine eligibility, though we have been advised of the following:

• The program is for asymptomatic screening testing but should not be used primarily for staff.
• “Congregate settings” likely includes most of our member settings including nursing homes, assisted living, Life Plan Communities, Adult Day, PACE communities, and affordable senior housing. However, this program extension is intended for underserved populations so primarily private-pay settings would not qualify.
• Tests are self-swab and the program provides test supplies and training but not staff. The test site must appoint a site administrator, but the site administrator does not need to be healthcare personnel. This means that a housing manager, program director, etc. could act as site administrator.

THANKS TO OUR SILVER PARTNER