U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Intergovernmental Affairs
Please see the advisory below from our partners in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regarding an update on the Whole-of-America response to COVID-19.
April 14, 2020
FEMA Advisory
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Whole-of-America Response
Attached you will find today’s FEMA Daily Briefing Points and a Reference Document for the Whole-of-America response to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These briefing points include Topline Messages, as well as Supply Chain Task Force; By the Numbers; FEMA and Department of Health and Human Services Response; and Guidance from Federal Agencies.
Topline messaging includes:
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FEMA, HHS, and our federal partners work with state, local, tribal and territorial governments to execute a whole-of-America response to COVID-19 pandemic and protect the health and safety of the American people.
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FEMA continues to expedite movement of commercially pre-sourced and commercially procured critical supplies from the global market to medical distributors in various locations across the U.S. through Project Airbridge.
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HHS announced five new contracts for ventilator production rated under the Defense Production Act (DPA), to General Electric, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, and Vyaire, as well as two other contracts for ventilator production, to Hamilton and Zoll.
- In total, combined with contracts with General Motors and Philips rated under the DPA issued last week, HHS has finalized contracts to supply 6,190 ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile by May 8 and 29,510 by June 1.
- The seven new ventilator contracts announced by HHS this month will provide a total of 137,431 ventilators by the end of 2020.
- The thousands of ventilators delivered to the Strategic National Stockpile starting this month, continuing through the spring and summer, will provide more capacity to respond to the pandemic as it evolves.
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HHS and FEMA deployment of ventilators from the stockpile have helped ensure that hospitals in states such as New York have not run out of ventilator capacity while working to save lives.
- The federal government has adopted a process to manage allocation of federal ventilator resources to ensure the right number of ventilators are shipped to the right states to sustain life within a 72-hour window.
- Emergency managers and public health officials submit requests for ventilators to FEMA/HHS, providing detailed data on total medical/ hospital beds; total acute care (ICU) beds; normal occupancy; predicted surge occupancy; and number of ventilators available in the state.
- States can send requests outside of the 72-hour window for consideration by the federal government; allocation decisions and/or shipments, however, should not be expected until the state is within the immediate 72-hour window.
- Hospital administrators across the country are being asked to provide daily reports on testing, capacity, supplies, utilization, and patient flows to facilitate the ongoing public health response.
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On April 13 , The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA announced the funding notice for an additional $100 million in supplemental Emergency Management Performance Grant Program funds.
- The money is available to all 56 states and territories as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. All applications must be submitted on Grants.gov by April 28.
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HHS and FEMA have expanded the items supplied by the International Reagent Resource (IRR) to help public health labs access diagnostics supplies and reagents for COVID-19 testing free of charge.
- Consolidating testing supplies under the IRR simplifies the resource request process for states and territories and alleviates the burden on public health labs of the need to work with separate, individual suppliers for swabs, reagents and other diagnostic testing supplies.
- The expanded list of diagnostic supplies will include supplies to support the three components needed for COVID-19 testing: sample kits, extraction kits and test kits.
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FEMA issued guidance on the framework, policy details and requirements for determining the eligibility for FEMA reimbursement of states purchasing and distributing food to meet the immediate needs of those who do not have access to food as a result of COVID-19 and to protect the public from the spread of the virus.
- State, local, tribal, and territorial governments with the legal responsibility for protecting life, public health and safety are eligible applicants under emergency and major disaster declarations for the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Applicants may enter into formal agreements or contracts with private organizations, including private nonprofit organizations such as food banks, to purchase and distribute food when necessary as an emergency protective measure in response to the pandemic.
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FEMA Mission
To help people before, during and after disasters.