Important COVID-19 News Updates – March 20, 2020

FEMA IS NOW IN CHARGE – Yesterday President Trump put FEMA in charge of coordinating the federal COVID-19 response to coordinate the response to the needs of the states on testing, equipment, PPE, hospital capacity and other needs. The governors and state emergency operations centers will be the mechanism for FEMA coordination as they are in other disasters. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/19/817903726/federal-emergency-management-agency-steps-up-incident-level-as-coronavirus-needs

PPE SHORTAGES – As you are all aware hospitals and other healthcare facilities are facing an urgent crisis, running out of personal protective equipment unable to secure needed supplies through the commercial market or the National Stockpile. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/19/coronavirus-medical-supplies-138290 To date, there has been no overall federal coordination on addressing PPE needs and directing supplies to where they are most needed most. The labor movement has been pushing for such central coordination. We will have to see/determine if FEMA will now be playing that role. While VP Pence has said that there is plenty of equipment now available from commercial. From all the information we have this is definitely not the case. There simply isn’t sufficient supply or capacity to meet the urgent need.

EQUIPMENT SHORTAGES – There are also shortages of chemical reagents and swabs for the test kits, which have greatly limited testing in particular states/localities. Very soon there will be a a major shortage of ventilators. Automakers and other manufacturers are exploring whether they can covert facilities to manufacture these items. But some of these are complicated pieces of equipment, and it is not clear if this will be feasible, particularly to help meet the immediate demand.https://mail.google.com/mail/u/2/#inbox/DmwnWstvLCbcmgWbRlJhPFnWxLDbPNjtrhtvfXjPQphSHmbqWDfxCcQLTRbMmkknGrpBbSVGGnLl?compose=xQTrpVvrKlWqjlRXrTnhGPVWqqdXcKcBVdwhDhWDwSFkKpxtqvxCGbxvsbnhnblMVrCqRtTTrmrCnmpnwQXVWxrVQqkGrDGsrncDSvBcbKbjGqBxkwVK

COVID-19 Toll – As of this morning there are 14,250 COVID-19 cases and 205 deaths in the US. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html