• OPWDD has released the following documents which provide updated guidance on returning to work after you have contracted Covid-19:
• Essential Personnel: Protocols for Essential Personnel to Return to Work Following COVID-19 Exposure or Infection
• Personnel in direct care and clinical settings: Health Advisory: Updated Protocols for Personnel in Clinical and Direct Care Settings to Return to Work Following COVID-19 Exposure or Infection
• Release from home isolation: Health Advisory: COVID-19 Release From Home Isolation

• The following documents have been released associated with this program:
• Overview Letter
• Overview PowerPoint
• Requirements 
• Exam
• Exam Answers 

• OPWDD is nearing a final policy regarding additional emergency housing to be billed through Intensive Respite. More informational will be available soon. If a provider feels they have a site, such as a day program (a certified site will take less time than a site not certified). Capacity and billing guidelines are also being prepared. The policy will address what to do when an individual has tested positive, is symptomatic and hospitalized and needs to be discharged to create hospital bed capacity but cannot return to the residence, and must reside in an emergency housing arrangement. 

• OPWDD is working on deploying the DDRO Crisis Teams for Coronavirus response. It is not yet ready to utilize but teams will be developed for Covid-19 related emergency housing needs, and separately for other, non-Covid-19 urgent issues.  

• OPWDD has worked to short cut some of the record keeping processes that have been put in place and are hampering provider action, including around contact tracing reporting. More to come on this.