COVID-19 Compilation – April 29, 2020 Courtesy of Cornerstone Government Affairs Common Acronyms Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Central Command (CENTCOM), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) Washington, D.C. • The CDC continues to update their dashboard. Today, they notably updated the section on Reopening Guidance for Cleaning and Disinfecting Public Spaces, Workplaces, Businesses, Schools, and Homes. Other updated resources are caring for someone sick at home, guidance for people who need to take extra precautions, and a new page with downloadable videos. • Results from an NIH clinical trial suggest that the drug remdesivir accelerates recovery from advanced COVID-19. The trial (known as the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial, or ACTT), sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is the first clinical trial launched in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19. Preliminary results from the trial indicate that patients who received remdesivir had a 31 percent faster time to recovery than those who received a placebo treatment. • NIH announced a new initiative aimed at speeding the innovation, development, and commercialization of COVID-19 testing technologies. The Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative will fund early innovative technologies to develop rapid and widely accessible COVID-19 testing. Working with the CDC, BARDA, and USDA, NIH will seek opportunities to move more advanced diagnostic technologies swiftly through the development pipeline toward commercialization and broad availability. • CMS issued a letter thanking clinicians for their ongoing efforts to treat patients and combat COVID-19 and shared additional details on the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) improvement activity. The agency announced earlier this month that clinicians who participate in a COVID-19 clinical trial and report their findings to a clinical data repository or registry can earn credit in MIPS under the Improvement Activities performance category for the 2020 performance period. • The IRS has updated their FAQ for Employee Retention Credit under the CARES Act. • House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said yesterday that the House will not return to Washington on May 4th. The Senate, however, will be back in action on Monday. This has not stopped discussions of a fourth COVID supplemental funding package, but it has shifted the timeline. For a more thorough update on the federal legislative landscape, please refer to the COVID-19 Legislative Update from Sierra Fuller which is published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If you do not already receive that update and would like to subscribe, please email [email protected]. • The FDA is hosting a webinar tomorrow at 1:00 pm about “Conducting Clinical Trials During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.” Updates from the States • Out of the cases under investigation detected by U.S. surveillance, there are total cases: 1,005,147 and 57,505 deaths The CDC data closes out the day before reporting • The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD) announced the launch of a free, on-demand training for entry-level COVID-19 contact tracers. The course, Making Contact: A Training for COVID-19 Contact Tracers, will support ongoing public health agency efforts to prepare new contact tracers for their work of helping identify COVID-19 positive cases and those with whom they’ve been in close contact. • Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland (R) issued an Executive Order (EO) requiring universal testing for all residents and staff at nursing homes, regardless of whether they have symptoms. • Louisiana’s state legislature is unhappy with Gov. John Bel Edwards’s (D) decision to extend the stay-at-home order. Speaker of the state House of Representatives, Clay Schexnayder (R) said one idea is to override the governor’s emergency declaration. • Updates on Lockdowns/Reopening: o Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) announced his phased approach for gradually reopening Kentucky's economy starting on May 11th. The text of the plan has not yet been published. o Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) announced that he will be extending the state's stay-at- home order. o New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced the creation of the New York Forward Re- Opening Advisory Board to help guide the state's re-opening strategy. o Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said that Arkansas restaurants can reopen their dining rooms starting May 12th. o New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced two new EO’s today. The first creates the Governor's Restart and Recovery Commission, a taskforce charged with advising the administration on the timing and preparation for New Jersey's recovery. The purpose of the second order is to reopen the state’s parks, golf courses, and county parks. o Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said this afternoon that he plans to allow restaurants and stores to operate at 25 percent of capacity starting Monday. Movie theatres, bars, gyms, and hairdressers will remain closed. • Useful state data: o The NYT is now tracking which states are reopening and which are still shut down. o These charts show cumulative coronavirus cases and deaths for metropolitan areas over time. o Use Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 U.S. map as a resource for media, policymakers and communities to view a collection of critical public health data in one online destination and better understand and track the COVID-19 pandemic in populations both large and small across the country. o NASHP has developed a COVID-19 State Action Center which serves as a state-level policy dashboard. o This site from the Kaiser Family Foundation provides state-level information on cases/deaths, social distancing measures, health policy actions, and more. o This resource from Bloomberg Law is a database of State Quarantine and Public Health Laws related to the COVID-19 response. o This series of maps shows how states are responding to COVID-19, and this tracker, created and maintained by MultiState Associates, has an up-to-date list of executive orders and various travel restrictions. o Finally, this site offers COVID-19 projections assuming full social distancing and can be broken down by state. Military/Defense • The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), said he does not think upcoming COVID-19 stimulus packages should include more funding for the DoD. o The DoD has already signaled it will request billions in a future economic package under consideration by Congress. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said last week that the DoD is working with the White House budget office on a package to aid defense contractors hit by the coronavirus pandemic. • Navy acquisition executive Hondo Geurts said the service has infused $600M into the shipbuilding industrial base during the COVID-19 pandemic by reducing retainers and withholds. • President Trump signed into law a second emergency GI Bill fix for student veterans whose studies have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. • Hundreds of sailors who were evacuated from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in recent weeks began returning to the aircraft carrier after completing their quarantine in Guam hotels. • 68 veteran residents at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, Mass., have died from COVID- 19, making the outbreak the deadliest at a long-term care facility in the U.S. • The Navy’s acting Sec. James McPherson ordered a wider investigation into the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which put the reinstatement of Capt. Brett Crozier on the backburner for now. • Nearly four dozen recruits aboard the Marine recruit depot in San Diego, California, have tested positive for COVID-19. • The number of COVID-19 cases aboard the USS Kidd rose to 64 as the destroyer returned to homeport at Naval Base San Diego to undergo disinfecting. • The DoD announced this evening that they are set to invest $75.5 million in a Defense Production Act contract with Puritan Medical Products whereby the company will increase swab production by 20 million per month starting in May. International Affairs • The global COVID-19 case total is expected to reach 3 million today. • As mentioned previously, the pandemic is disrupting immunization efforts around the world. It is now being estimated that up to 12 million children will be delayed in receiving their polio vaccinations in Africa, and 41 countries will not receive their malaria vaccines. • Calabria, a region in southern Italy, will begin the second phase of its emergency restriction rollback tomorrow. Bars, bakeries, restaurants, and pizzerias will be allowed to open. • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he will not mandate that meat processing plants remain open. Two plants in Alberta, which combined provide about 70 percent of beef products in the country, have suffered from COVID-19 outbreaks. • Germany has extended its warning against international travel until June 14th. • Spanish authorities sprayed a beach with bleach in an attempt to protect children from COVID- 19. The moved has caused irreparable damage to the local ecosystem. Authorities have since apologized. • Yemen has confirmed its first expansion of COVID-19, a cluster of five cases. This may seem low, but it is a serious threat for a country already dealing with hunger and a cholera outbreak. • Ventilators appear to be the newest black market item in Russia.