The Florida Department of Health has issued updated testing criteria for COVID-19, easing the stringent policy of DOH to this point. The guidelines can be found here on the DOH site. 

Clinical Screening Tool for Identifying Persons Under Investigation for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
March 15, 2020

The Department of Health (Department) has updated the clinical screening tool health care providers use in the identification of persons under investigation or suspected for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The clinical screening tool is intended to assist health care practitioners in understanding their role in identifying individuals, specimen collection, shipping of specimens, and notification of local county health departments, as appropriate.

The State Surgeon General, Dr. Scott Rivkees, is currently hosting a weekly health care provider telephone conference call designed to provide updates from the Department, briefing from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, updates from other state agencies and address questions from partners. If you are interested in joining this weekly call, please see the call-in information below:

Date: Every Wednesday
Time: 2:00pm-2:30pm
Call-In Number: 888-585-9008
Conference Room ID: 872-128-152

Additional Resources

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued their CDC Health Alert Network (HAN) Update which highlights guidance and recommendations for evaluating and identifying patients who should be tested for COVID-19 that was shared on March 4, 2020, on the CDC COVID-19 website at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/hcp/clinical-criteria.html. It supersedes the guidance and recommendations provided in CDC’s HAN 428 distributed on February 28, 2020.

Health care practitioners should immediately implement recommended infection prevention and control practices (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/infection-control/control-recommendations.html) if a patient is suspected of having COVID-19.

The American Medical Association has published a Physician’s Guide to COVID-19 that includes how to prepare your practice, protect yourself from infection and diagnosing patients with suspected or confirmed COVID- 19 (https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/physicians-guide-covid-19).

Please click here for a print friendly version of the Clinician Screening Tool for Identifying Persons Under Investigation for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).