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 23, 2020
FEMA Advisory
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic: Whole-of-America Response
Attached you will find today’s FEMA Daily Briefing Points for the Whole-of-America response to the 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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On April 16 , President Trump released Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, providing a plan for rolling back social distancing measures and reopening the country’s economy in several phases, depending on location.
- Under the guidelines, states will need to meet six metrics that include demonstrating a downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases over a 14-day period and a robust system for testing health care workers before they can proceed to a phased opening.
- The federal government will continue to work with governors across the country to ensure they have the equipment, supplies and testing resources to reopen safely and responsibly.
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In order to help Americans, return to work, the federal government will distribute cloth facial coverings for critical infrastructure workers who do not need medical-grade personal protective equipment (PPE) for their daily work.
- The facial coverings will be delivered in a phased approach for infrastructure workers, first responders and food producers. Prioritization will also be to areas with the highest COVID-19 infection rates.
- Distribution will be based on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s analysis of priority infrastructure sectors and will include food production and distribution, energy, water and wastewater treatment, essential transportation and logistics, first responders, communications, hazardous materials management, manufacturing of medical supplies, and sanitation and disinfection supplies.
- The first phase includes distribution of more than 19 million facial coverings.
- HHS anticipates production of 6.5 million facial coverings each week for the next month.
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As of April 22 , FEMA, HHS, and the private sector combined have coordinated the delivery of or are currently shipping: 66.9 million N95 respirators, 96.9 million surgical masks, 6.6 million face shields, 13.8 million surgical gowns, 727 million gloves, 10,998 ventilators and 8,450 federal medical station beds.
- 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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The U.S. has now processed 4.69 million samples, which is more total tests than the following nations combined: Australia, Austria, Canada, France, India, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
- States should be making full use of the vast testing resources available to them, to include leveraging the full capacity available through commercial laboratories in addition to the capability provided through state laboratories.
- HHS and FEMA have expanded items supplied by the International Reagent Resource (IRR) to help public health labs access free diagnostics supplies and reagents.
- Consolidating testing supplies under the IRR simplifies the resource request process for states and territories and alleviates the burden on public health labs on needing to work with separate suppliers for swabs, reagents and other diagnostic testing supplies.
- On April 16 , the FDA announced an expansion of testing options through use of synthetic swabs – with a design similar to Q-tips – to test patients by collecting a sample from the front of the nose.
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FEMA Mission
To help people before, during, and after disasters.