The Washington State Board of Health (Board) has authority to adopt rules for the prevention and control of infectious and noninfectious diseases in Washington. The Notifiable Conditions rule outlines requirements for reporting information that is necessary for public health officials to protect the public's health by tracking communicable diseases and other conditions.
The Board adopted an emergency rulemaking order in 2020 to create WAC 246-101-017 as a new section. The emergency rule explicitly designates novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), also known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), as a notifiable condition.
The Board voted to adopt a third emergency rule that extends the designation of COVID-19 as a notifiable condition at its March 10 online public meeting. The rule requires health care providers and facilities, laboratories, local health jurisdictions, and the state Department of Agriculture to report certain demographic, testing, and other relevant information with each COVID-19 test result to improve the public health response to COVID-19 in accordance with the federal CARES Act. The requirement to report essential testing and demographic data with each COVID-19 test result will continue to enable the public health system to accurately determine the burden of infection on vulnerable groups and identify appropriate public health interventions.
The emergency rule will be filed with the code reviser on March 26, 2021 which will extend reporting requirements without lapse for another 120 days.
Emergency rulemaking is different from the typical rulemaking process. Analytical and stakeholder process do not apply, and a public hearing is not held for emergency rules. The emergency rule is separate from the Board’s permanent Notifiable Conditions rule.
More information on the rule’s implementation is available on the state Department of Health’s Reporting COVID-19 Test Results web page.
