Just when it starts to feel like COVID-19 is a thing of the past, along comes a headline like this one: “China’s New COVID Wave Set to See 65 Million Cases a Week.” That headline appeared on the Bloomberg News website on May 22—eleven days after the COVID public health emergency ended in the United States. Public health emergency or not, COVID hasn’t gone away, and probably never will. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged as much during a press conference in early May marking the end of the global health emergency. “The worst thing any country can ..read more

The words “contact tracing” might no longer be ubiquitous when people talk about limiting the spread of COVID-19, but behind the scenes, this century-old practice remains an extremely effective disease case investigation tool. Just ask the people who are doing it every day. Three years since the onset of COVID-19, PubSEG’s contact tracers are still seeing firsthand the public health benefits of reaching out to positive cases and close contacts on behalf of the schools and communities we serve. Maybe people are sick and tired of hearing about the virus, but that doesn’t mean it’s something to i ..read more

After three years of often dire headlines surrounding COVID-19, we’ve arrived at a state of relative calm when it comes to the virus. COVID is barely mentioned in the news anymore, and most people are going about their lives as they did before the pandemic. A return to normalcy is definitely a good thing. But that doesn’t mean COVID has gone away. Nor should it be ignored. While the latest variants seem to be less virulent than past strains, it doesn’t mean people still aren’t dying, getting sick, and feeling long-term effects. One PubSEG employee has a cousin who’s had COVID five times and co ..read more

Contact tracing for COVID-19 has presented its share of challenges since the very start of the pandemic, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Los Angeles County. From the beginning, the densely populated county has been extremely vigilant about trying to slow the spread of the virus and protect its residents. This means constantly adapting policies to address new strains of the virus, dramatic spikes in cases, and ever-changing CDC guidelines. Protocols in place one week might not be in place the next, forcing contact tracers working with organizations in the county to remain forever on t ..read more

Dealing with COVID-19 is stressful enough without also worrying about your protected health information (PHI) being compromised. That’s why every time PubSEG meets with a prospective client about our contact tracing and disease case management services, one of questions we’re inevitably asked is: Are you HIPAA-compliant? We’re proud to say the answer has always been yes. “Protecting PHI positions us as reliable and trustworthy to our clients, and our clients’ clients—the people we’re talking to and contact tracing,” says Harley Myers, PubSEG’s Manager of Operations. “We get questions all the t ..read more

When PubSEG launched our new contact tracing and disease case investigation platform last fall, we knew it would be a gamechanger for ourselves, our clients, and the communities our clients serve. But we didn’t realize just how much of a gamechanger. “It has definitely surpassed my expectations,” says Dawn Stolte, PubSEG’s Senior VP of Operations. “I knew it would be able to do a lot of things. But it’s doing much more than I thought it could do.” The platform, rebranded as “PubSEG Connect” at the start of this year, is a fully customizable, HIPAA-compliant software that can be used for contac ..read more

Here’s a recent holiday tradition we would all gladly do without: For the third consecutive year, the Christmas season has seen a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases. Fortunately, the numbers aren’t as alarming as during last year’s omicron surge. Still, the U.S. has experienced a steady increase in cases this month, with about 65,000 people testing positive daily as of mid-December. The New York Times reported on Dec. 19 that reported cases and hospitalizations nationally had both risen more than 40% since Thanksgiving. And with people spending more time with friends and extended family over the hol ..read more

Ever since the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, companies across the globe have grappled with the challenges of adapting to remote or hybrid workplaces. Regardless of what happens with COVID in the months and years ahead, it’s clear we’re never going back to the way things were before the pandemic. Companies that never would have even considered hiring remote workers three years ago now make it a regular practice. According to statistics compiled by Zippia.com, there are expected to be 36.2 million American employees working remotely by 2025, up 417% from the 7 million remote workers before the ..read more

For years, people have been warned to avoid talking about politics at the holiday dinner table. Is talking about COVID-19 now off-limits, as well? In some families, apparently, the answer is yes. One PubSEG employee mentioned an uncle who’s been teasing her for still bringing up the virus and the precautions people can take to protect themselves. “He tells me, COVID’s not even happening anymore,” the employee says. “Of course it’s happening—I wouldn’t have this job if it wasn’t still happening. But it just seems like it’s getting weirder for some people to have conversations about it. Everyone ..read more

A surge in COVID-19 cases is coming to the United States this fall. That much is all but guaranteed. But good luck predicting exactly what that surge will look like. The World Health Organization is reportedly monitoring at least 300 post-BA.5 subvariants of the virus, with ever-confusing, alphabet-soup designations such as BF.7, BQ.1.1., and XBB. (Almost makes the days of delta and omicron seem quaint.) Nobody knows for sure which of these could become the dominant strains in America, exactly how virulent they’ll be, or how evasive they’ll be against the latest vaccine boosters. There are def ..read more