Implementation of Mitigation Strategies for Communities with Local COVID-19 Transmission
When a novel virus with pandemic potential emerges, non-pharmaceutical interventions, which will be called community mitigation strategies in this document, often are the most readily available interventions to help slow transmission of the virus in communities. Community mitigation is a set of actions that persons and communities can take to help slow the spread of respiratory virus infections. Community mitigation is especially important before a vaccine or drug becomes widely available.
The following is a framework for actions which local and state health departments can recommend in their community to both prepare for and mitigate community transmission of COVID-19 in the United States. Selection and implementation of these actions should be guided by the local characteristics of disease transmission, demographics, and public health and healthcare system capacity.
Mitigation Strategies and Goals
The goals for using mitigation strategies in communities with local COVID-19 transmission are to slow the transmission of disease and in particular to protect:
- Individuals at increased risk for severe illness, including older adults and persons of any age with underlying health conditions (See Appendix A)
- The healthcare and critical infrastructure workforces
These approaches are used to minimize morbidity and mortality and the social and economic impacts of COVID-19. Individuals, communities, businesses, and healthcare organizations are all part of a community mitigation strategy. These strategies should be implemented to prepare for and when there is evidence of community transmission. Signals of ongoing community transmission may include detection of confirmed cases of COVID-19 with no epidemiologic link to travelers or known cases, or more than three generations of transmission. Implementation is based on:
- Emphasizing individual responsibility for implementing recommended personal-level actions
- Empowering businesses, schools, and community organizations to implement recommended actions, particularly in ways that protect persons at increased risk of severe illness
- Focusing on settings that provide critical infrastructure or services to individuals at increased risk of severe illness
- Minimizing disruptions to daily life to the extent possible Guiding principles
- Each community is unique, and appropriate mitigation strategies will vary based on the level of community transmission, characteristics of the community and their populations, and the local capacity to implement strategies (Table 1).
- Consider all aspects of a community that might be impacted, including populations most vulnerable to severe illness and those that may be more impacted socially or economically, and select appropriate actions.
- Mitigation strategies can be scaled up or down depending on the evolving local situation.
- When developing mitigation plans, communities should identify ways to ensure the safety and social well-being of groups that may be especially impacted by mitigation strategies, including individuals at increased risk for severe illness.
- Activation of community emergency plans is critical for the implementation of mitigation strategies. These plans may provide additional authorities and coordination needed for interventions to be implemented (Table 2).
- Activities in Table 2 may be implemented at any time regardless of the level of community transmission based on guidance on from local and state health officials.
- The level of activities implemented may vary across the settings described in Table 2 (e.g., they may be at a minimal/ moderate level for one setting and at a substantial level for another setting in order to meet community response needs).
- Depending on the level of community spread, local and state public health departments may need to implement mitigation strategies for public health functions to identify cases and conduct contact tracing (Table 3). When applied, community mitigation efforts may help facilitate public health activities like contact tracing
For more information: www.cdc.gov/COVID19
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