U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Office of 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 6, 2020
FEMA Advisory
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic: Daily Briefing Points
Attached you will find today’s FEMA Daily Briefing Points for the Whole-of-America response to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These briefing points include Topline Messages, as well as information associated with FEMA and Department of Health and Human Services Response; FEMA Disaster Response Capacity; Federal Funding of National Guard (Title 32); Community-Based Testing Sites; Strategic National Stockpile; Hydroxychloroquine/Chloroquine; FDA Ventilator Guidance; CDC Respirator Guidance; Defense Production Act; Guidance from Federal Agencies; CDC Public Guidance; Coping With Stress; Combating Disinformation and Rumors; and How To Help.
Topline
Topline messaging includes the following:
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Under the direction of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, FEMA, HHS and our federal partners are working with state, local, tribal and territorial governments to execute a whole-of-America response to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and protect the public.
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The number one priority is the health and safety of the American people.
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On March 31, the president extended the nation’s Slow the Spread campaign until April 30.
- The American people play a key role in the campaign to help slow the virus’ spread and keep our most high-risk populations safe.
- The latest updates and information on how to protect yourself and what to do if you think you are sick are available at www.coronavirus.gov.
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FEMA is expediting movement of critical supplies from the global market to medical distributors in various locations across the U.S. through Project Air Bridge. FEMA is scheduling flights daily but does not have detailed visibility on the amount of PPE until the cargo is loaded.
- Since March 29, flights have landed in New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, and Columbus, Ohio. On April 5, four additional flights landed in Chicago, Los Angeles, Columbus, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky.
- Each flight contains critical personal protective equipment (PPE), to include gloves, gowns, goggles, and masks.
- Overseas flights are arriving at operational hub airports for distribution to hotspots and locations across the country through regular supply chains. Flight arrivals do not mean supplies will be distributed in the operational hub locations.
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To efficiently maintain the country’s existing medical supply chain infrastructure, FEMA is supplementing – not supplanting – the supply chain through a variety of strategies, including Project Airbridge.
- The air bridge was created to shorten the amount of time it takes for U.S. medical supply distributors to get personal protective equipment and other critical supplies into the country for their respective customers.
- FEMA is doing this by covering the cost to fly supplies into the U.S. from overseas factories, cutting the amount of time it takes to ship supplies from weeks to days.
- As part of the current agreement with distributors, 50 percent of the supplies on each plane are directed by the distributors to customers within hotspot areas with the most critical needs for those supplies. These areas are determined by HHS and FEMA based on CDC data.
- The remaining 50 percent is fed into that distributors’ normal supply chain and onto their customers in other areas across the U.S.
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HHS is releasing $160 million dollars in additional CDC funding to dozens of regional hotspots. These funds will be used to support areas hard-pressed by COVID-19 in their work to respond effectively to the worsening situation in their jurisdictions.
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The FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization of hydroxychloroquine sulfate and an Emergency Use Authorization of chloroquine phosphate to treat certain patients hospitalized with COIVD-19.
- Hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate are oral prescription drugs approved to treat malaria and other diseases but both drugs have shown activity in laboratory studies against coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and anecdotal reports suggest that these drugs may offer some benefit in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
- The Strategic National Stockpile has begun shipping doses of hydroxychloroquine to New York and Los Angeles County based on their requests.
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Given the scarcity of the ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and the current capacity of the private sector to meet the demand, the federal government has adopted a process to manage federal ventilator resources to ensure ventilators are shipped to the states in the amount needed to manage the immediate crisis.
- At present, the federal government has 8,644 total ventilators available, which includes 8,044 in the Strategic National Stockpile and 600 available from the Department of Defense.
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As of April 4, FEMA and HHS have delivered ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile to Alaska (60), California (170), Connecticut (50), Florida (200), Georgia (150), Illinois (600), Louisiana (350), Maryland (120), Massachusetts (100), Michigan (700), New Jersey (850), New York (4,400), and Washington (500).
- 140 ventilators that had previously been delivered to Oregon were donated to New York by Gov. Kate Brown.
- Additional allocations in process include a 250-bed Federal Medical Station and a Public Health strike team for Michigan; a 50-bed Federal Medical Station for the Metro D.C. area; 30 ventilators for Guam; and 300 additional ventilators to New Jersey.
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Forty states, four territories and 23 tribes have issued stay at home orders.
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FEMA Mission
To help people before, during and after disasters.