COVID-19 Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance

The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) uses electronic Syndromic Surveillance data to monitor emergency department visits, which allows for a non-test based method for monitoring COVID-19 infection within the community. This dashboard shows the percent of emergency department visits in New York with signs, symptoms, or diagnoses consistent with COVID-19, based on Syndromic Surveillance tracking. All COVID-19 related emergency department visits are included in these data, regardless of disease severity; these visits may or may not require higher-level care, including hospital admission.

• This page is updated Monday through Friday.

• Emergency Department (ED) Syndromic Surveillance is based upon ED patient chief complaints and diagnosis codes that are electronically submitted to NYSDOH from NYS participating hospital EDs. Custom software reads the chief complaint and diagnosis code of every patient record and searches for disease or medical condition related words, phrases, symptoms, and diagnosis codes.
  The NYC data received by the NYSDOH only includes chief complaint to categorize visits, and may not reflect data published by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

• In Syndromic Surveillance, COVID-19 is defined as a disease or medical condition characterized by these symptoms and/or diagnosis codes:

  1. Novel coronavirus terms

  2. Novel coronavirus diagnosis code U07.1

  3. Travel history combined with coronavirus terms

  4. Travel history combined with NYS respiratory syndrome definition

  5. Quarantine terms combined with coronavirus, travel history or NYS respiratory syndrome definition

  6. Coronavirus terms combined with testing terms