NACCHO has been releasing bi-weekly blogs consisting of an up-to-date collection of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) resources for our members working at the intersection of environmental health and COVID-19. See past resource roundups here.

Across NACCHO

Webinar Follow-Up: Protecting Children’s Environmental Health During COVID-19: Supporting Child Care Programs
If you missed NACCHO’s webinar held on April 28, or simply want to re-review the content, you can now access our webinar recording and slides and get a detailed recap of the webinar through this new post. The panelists discussed several strategies to address children’s environmental health including: direct intervention and education for staff in childcare programs; the importance of educational outreach, partnership building, and community engagement with pediatricians; and transparent outreach strategies and clear guidance regarding safe reopening of buildings.

NEW! Guest Post from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: Effective Assessments of Disaster Shelters During COVID-19: CDC Guidance and Resources for Local Health Departments

As the nation recognizes 2021 National Hurricane Preparedness Week, health officials are reminded to think about how their regular shelter operations can be adjusted to accommodate COVID-19 guidelines, especially around hygiene, sanitation, distancing, and medical isolation. CDC’s shelter assessment form is a modified version of CDC’s original Environmental Health Assessment Form for Disaster Shelters initially released in 2008 and revised again in 2019. In comparison to the 2019 Assessment Form, this new, easily adaptable tool includes new variables, covers an additional domain, and provides more opportunities for users to take notes while utilizing the assessment form.

Webinar: Equity in Public Health Vaccination Efforts during COVID-19: The Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) invite state, local, tribal, and territorial public health professionals to attend this joint webinar on May 17 at 12:30 PM EDT: Equity in Public Health Vaccination Efforts during COVID-19. During this webinar, panelists will share insights and lessons learned from their work addressing equitable COVID-19 vaccine planning and distribution within their communities. Panelists will touch upon topics including learning to leverage COVID-19 data to inform equitable vaccine distribution; effectively reach minority populations in rural settings; and utilize Chief Equity Officers to effectively respond to a community’s vaccination needs.

NACCHO’s Environmental Health and COVID-19 Resource Library: Recognizing that many of you, our local health department staff, have had to adapt existing programs and respond to new challenges during the pandemic, NACCHO has gathered and developed several environmental health resources to address your needs. In case you missed our Library launch in the last issue, click here to learn more from our blog and access the resource!

• NACCHO’s team would like to hear from you! As the nation moves through the vaccination stage and into recovery and community resilience with a health equity and environmental justice focus, NACCHO’s team will continue to update this webpage with the latest information and resources as they become available.
  • Please send your feedback or new resource considerations to NACCHO’s environmental health and COVID-19 team at [email protected] with questions or comments.
• Share this Resource! Use this communications toolkit from NACCHO to share this resource on social media, newsletters, and your blogsites.

CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports

• COVID-19 Outbreak Among Farmworkers — Okanogan County, Washington, May–August 2020: More coordination may be needed between employers, community groups, and public health authorities to help decrease farmworkers’ risk for COVID-19, especially among indoor workers whose jobs limit physical distancing.
• COVID-19 Among Workers in the Seafood Processing Industry: Implications for Prevention Measures — Alaska, March–Oct 2020: The review of COVID-19 outbreaks among this high-risk group identified gaps in required prevention strategies, potentially indicating the need to revise requirements, including the addition of serial testing.

From COVID Collaborative, Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Brown School of Public Health, and New America

Resources from a task force builds on CDC guidance and outlines a clear path to reopening schools through infection prevention and control. The evidence affirms that it is possible to keep schools safe for in-person learning and achieve zero or near-zero transmission, even in areas with high community spread. https://www.covidcollaborative.us/infection-prevention-and-control-in-schools.

See any EH and COVID-19 categories missing on this bi-weekly blog? Let us know by emailing [email protected]. Continue to check back with NACCHO’s Essential Elements for COVID-19 and local health resources.