Heluna Health is monitoring COVID-19 (the illness caused by the novel coronavirus now called SARS-CoV-2). We are working closely with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the California Department of Public Health on supporting a statewide response, including the protection of our most vulnerable populations as well as those who serve them. These activities include support for increased testing, conducting surveillance-related activities and undertaking other critical measures, as needed.
Because COVID-19 is a newly identified illness, we are still learning the details regarding the various ways that it can be transmitted. The most recent information scientists have suggests that COVID-19 primarily spreads through close person-to-person contact with someone who is infected (within approximately six feet), typically through respiratory droplets released when a person coughs or sneezes. The virus is quite transmissable, which means that it spreads relatively easily from person-to-person within a community. The latest updates on COVID-19 from the CDC can be found here: CDC’s webpage.
The majority of people living in the United States are unlikely to be exposed to this virus at this time, and for this reason, the CDC considers the immediate health risk from COVID-19 for most Americans to be low. Those individuals at elevated risk for COVID-19 are close contacts of person with a laboratory-confirmed case of the virus, healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 and individuals living in communities or travelers returning from affected international locations where widespread and ongoing community transmission is occurring. One of the most important messages for us to remember is that someone’s nationality alone is not a risk factor for COVID-19.
Outbreaks involving novel viruses evolve quickly and guidance from public health officials may change as the investigation continues into the nature and transmission dynamics of this virus.
Please check the websites below regularly for updates on this outbreak.
– Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LAC DPH) Coronavirus website: http://www.ph.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus
– San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH): http://www.sfdph.org/dph/default.asp
– California Department of Public Health (CDPH):https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/nCOV2019.aspx
– World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
– Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering Real-time COVID-19 case map: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
