The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its COVID-19 testing guidelines for nursing homes.
The revised, consolidated guidelines address viral testing of staff and residents, and testing in response to an outbreak. The agency also added the following recommendations:
- Testing the same individual more than once in a 24-hour period is not recommended.
- Clinicians are encouraged to consider testing symptomatic residents for other causes of respiratory illness, such as influenza, in addition to testing for SARS-CoV-2.
The announcement also included these directives:
- Testing practices should aim for rapid turnaround times (less than 48 hours) in order to facilitate effective interventions.
- Antibody (serologic) test results should generally not be used as the sole basis to diagnose an active SARS-CoV-2 infection and should not be used to inform infection prevention and control actions.
More analysis from McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, including responses by Christopher Laxton, CAE, executive director of AMDA, is available here.
