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Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the District would move to phase one of its "re-opening" plan on Friday. As part of the announcement, DC Health released its guidance for resuming or continuing elective surgeries and procedures in the District.

The guidance in its entirety can be seen here but below are a few items of note for DC physicians:

• Offices are asked to telephone screen all patients for COVID-19 symptoms prior to their arrival at the office.
• All patients are required to wear face "coverings".
• Facilities are encouraged to discourage lingering in a waiting room by eliminating chairs and spacing the remaining 6 feet; prohibiting people accompanying the patients if possible; and "maintain low patient volume".
• Healthcare facilities should implement sick leave policies for all employees, send home any who have illness symptoms, and ask staff to monitor themselves for symptoms. There is no provision offering free testing for healthcare workers at any time, as the MSDC COVID-19 Task Force has recommended.
• Facilities should only open if they possess adequate PPE supplies (more to come on how to do this from MSDC).
  
• All providers should wear surgical masks at all times.

MSDC welcomes your thoughts and comments.