What’s happening: Effective immediately, assisted living facilities (ALFs) are no longer required to report individual cases of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) to their licensing representative as major incidents, provided that these cases do not threaten the life, health or safety of the resident/participant.

• Individual COVID-19 cases resulting in significant illness, hospitalization or death should continue to be reported.
• This change, announced in a February 14 memo affects ALFs, adult day care centers, and children’s residential facilities.

Important note: Outbreaks of COVID-19 or other communicable diseases should continue to be reported, as the general reporting requirements for outbreaks of communicable disease have not changed.

• Providers licensed by DSS are required to report outbreaks of communicable disease to both the local health department and the DSS licensing representative

If an outbreak is suspected, it should be reported within 24 hours of the occurrence.

• Per VDH, there is no strict or specific number of cases that need to occur for most communicable diseases to be considered an outbreak.
• Any unusual level of activity of any illness that might be spread from one person to another or that might be caused by a common exposure should be reported as a suspected outbreak.

How to report an outbreak: VDH provides two reporting options.

1. Report an outbreak to your Local Health District by contacting them directly.
2. Use the Suspected Outbreak Reporting Portal.