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 8, 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 Messaging and Resources Links for the Whole-of-America response to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The briefing points include Topline Messages, as well as information 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 Project Air Bridge expedites movement of critical supplies, in varying quantities, from the global market to medical distributors in various locations across the U.S.
- The air bridge was created to reduce the time it takes for U.S. medical supply distributors to receive personal protective equipment and other critical supplies into the country for their respective customers.
- FEMA covers the cost to fly supplies into the U.S. from overseas factories, reducing shipment time from weeks to days.
- FEMA does not have detailed visibility on PPE amounts until the cargo is loaded.
- As of April 7, 15 flights have landed, containing critical personal protective equipment (PPE): gloves, gowns, goggles, and masks.
- Five flights are scheduled to arrive today, 4 in Chicago and 1 in New York.
- An additional 52 flights are scheduled over the next three weeks.
- Overseas flights arrive at operational hub airports for distribution to hotspots and nationwide locations through regular supply chains. Flight arrivals do not mean supplies will be distributed in the operational hub locations.
- FEMA is providing distributors with up-to-date information on the locations across the country hardest hit by COVID-19 or in most need of resources now and in the future.
- Per agreements with distributors, 50 percent of supplies on each plane are for customers within the hotspot areas with most critical needs. The remaining 50 percent is fed into distributors’ normal supply chain to their customers in other areas nationwide.
- HHS and FEMA determine hotspot areas based on CDC data.
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Considering both scarcity of ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and current capacity of the private sector to meet demand, the federal government has adopted a process to manage federal ventilator resources to ensure the right amount of ventilators are shipped to the to the right states to manage the immediate crisis.
- The federal government has 8,644 total ventilators available: 8,044 in the Strategic National Stockpile; 600 from the Department of Defense.
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Emergency managers and public health officials must continue to report on the following data to FEMA and HHS:
- Total medical/ hospital beds;
- Total acute care (ICU) beds;
- Normal occupancy;
- Predicted surge occupancy; and
- Number of ventilators available in your state.
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This morning, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the first contract for ventilator production rated under the Defense Production Act, to General Motors.
- GM’s contract, at a total contract price of $489.4 million, is for 30,000 ventilators to be delivered to the Strategic National Stockpile by the end of August 2020, with a production schedule allowing for the delivery of 6,132 ventilators by June 1, 2020.
- The rating of this contract under the DPA follows President Trump’s direction to HHS Secretary Alex Azar to invoke the Defense Production Act with regard to GM’s production of ventilators on March 27.
- By rating contracts under the DPA, HHS is helping manufacturers like GM get the supplies they need to produce ventilators as quickly as possible, while also ensuring that these ventilators are routed through the Strategic National Stockpile to where they’re needed most.
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FEMA Mission
To help people before, during and after disasters.