Pandemic Influenza Plan - Questar III

Section 8: Travel-Related Disease Control and Community Prevention
• Snow days and self-shielding - Implementation of “snow days” - asking everyone
to stay home - involves the entire community in a positive way. Snow days may
be instituted for an initial 10-day period, with a final decision on duration based
on an epidemiologic and social assessment of the situation. Recommendations
should be made available to the public to acquire and store necessary provisions
and supplies needed during snow days. Snow days can effectively reduce
transmission without explicit activity restrictions (i.e., quarantine). Exceptions
must be made for personnel who maintain primary functions in the community
(e.g., law enforcement personnel, transportation workers, utility workers involved
with electricity, water, gas, telephone, and sanitation). Voluntary “self-shielding”
behavior may precede an official snow day declaration (i.e., many people may
elect to stay home or limit their activity even in the absence of an official snow
day).
• Closure of office buildings, shopping malls, schools, and public transportation are
potential community containment measures during a pandemic. Each of these will
have a significant impact on the community and workforce, and careful
consideration should be focused on their potential to slow person-to-person spread
of influenza. Broad community involvement will to needed for effective
implementation, while at the same time maintaining essential community
services. For example, when public transportation is cancelled, other modes of
transportation must be provided for persons needing medical evaluation.
Anecdotal reports suggest that community influenza outbreaks may be limited by
closing schools, especially when schools are closed early in the outbreak. In
addition, the risk of infection and illness among children is likely to be decreased,
which would be particularly important if the novel strain causes significant
morbidity and mortality among children. Children are known to be efficient
transmitters of seasonal influenza and other respiratory illnesses. During a
Pandemic Period, parents should be encouraged to consider child care
arrangements that do not result in large gatherings of children outside the school
setting.
• Containment measures may be applied to the use of specific sites or buildings.
Two ways of increasing social distance activity restrictions are to cancel events
and close buildings or to restrict access to certain sites or buildings. These
measures are referred to as “focused measures to increase social distance.”
Depending on the situation, examples of cancellations and building closures
might include:
o Cancellation of public events (concerts, sports events, movies, plays)
o Closure of recreational facilities (community swimming pools, youth
clubs, gymnasiums, movie theatres)
School systems, businesses, community infrastructure providers, and other employers
should develop plans for continuity of essential operations and modified operation during
“snow days.” Employers should anticipate that 25 to 30% of persons will become ill
during a 6 to 8 week outbreak, although a lower percentage of working-aged adults will
February 7, 2006 8-7