COVID-19: New High-Risk Groups Added / At-Home Test Project

By Kelly Young

Edited by André Sofair, MD, MPH

Take a look at some of the recent developments on COVID-19:

New high-risk groups added: The CDC has expanded its list of medical conditions that put people at increased risk for severe COVID-19. Some of the recent additions to the list include cystic fibrosis, type 1 diabetes (in addition to type 2), moderate-to-severe asthma, dementia and other neurologic conditions, stroke/cerebrovascular disease, liver disease, overweight, and HIV infection. Previously, these were listed as conditions that "might" put a person at higher risk.

Rapid, at-home test project: The CDC and NIH have launched an initiative in which they are providing up to 160,000 residents of two communities (Pitt County, N.C., and Chattanooga/Hamilton County, Tenn.) free, at-home, rapid SARS-CoV-2 tests to administer three times a week for a month. The project will try to determine whether frequent, self-administered testing can help reduce community spread of SARS-CoV-2.