This post has been archived and contains information that may be out of date.
In case you missed them, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) recently released two All Facilities Letters (AFLs) for hospitals related to COVID-19.
In AFL 21-25, CDPH announced that it will require general acute care hospitals to report specified patient level discharge information for each hospitalized person who tests positive for COVID-19. The purpose of this is to enable CDPH to better understand breakthrough COVID-19 cases. This is a weekly reporting requirement that will begin Tuesday, July 27.
Using the Excel template provided in the AFL, data should be reported each Tuesday for discharged COVID-19-positive patients whose discharge diagnosis coding was completed in the prior week. Data reported to CDPH should be sent via Secure File Transfer Protocol. For the first data submission on July 27, CDPH is asking hospitals to voluntarily submit 30 days of data, instead of the required seven days. Any questions can be directed to CDPH at its CalREDIE Help Desk at calrediehelp@cdph.ca.gov.
In AFL 20-75.1 on investigation and reporting thresholds for COVID-19, CDPH updated the link to county COVID-19 case rates. Previously, the link was to the former Blueprint for a Safer Economy web page, which was retired June 15. The AFL now includes the link to the Tracking COVID-19 in California website, where county COVID-19 case rates are available.