Policy Recommendations to Prepare for the Second Wave of COVID-19

As COVID-19 continues to spread, countries around the world are working to establish public health policies that balance re-opening their economies with mitigating the spread of infection, to varying degrees of success. Several months into the global pandemic, the United States faces a new surge of cases, and possibly a second wave.

With this in mind, Wendy Chavkin, MD, MPH, professor emerita in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, co-created a document of policy recommendations to assist at the national and state level in creating and evolving public health policy to address the expected second wave of COVID-19 cases, with the aim of ensuring consistent progress in curbing the rate of infection and abating a surge. 

In addition to Chavkin, co-authors include Karen Nelson, former senior vice president of Maimonides Medical Center in New York; and Laurel Swerdlow, MPH '15, a health policy analyst in Oregon.

Supported by the Scholars Strategy Network, the first part of the document provides public health evidence related to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing policies, key components in preventing a second wave of cases. The latter part of the document focuses on policies related to the provision of health care services through various stages of the pandemic.