Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Daily Digest Bulletin

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
FEMA Advisory: COVID-19 Daily Briefing Points (April 29, 2020)

FEMA ADVISORY – April 29, 2020

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:

  • On April 27, President Trump unveiled the Opening Up America Again Testing Overview and Testing Blueprint designed to facilitate state development and implementation of the robust testing plans and rapid response programs described in the President’s Guidelines for Opening Up America Again
    • The President’s Testing Blueprint sets forth the partnership between federal, state, local, and tribal governments, along with the private-sector and professional associations, all of which will play important roles in meeting the Nation’s testing needs.
  • To support the Administration’s Testing Blueprint, FEMA, at the direction of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, is working to source and procure testing material – specifically, testing swabs and transport media.
    • The FEMA-sourced material will be provided to states, territories and tribes for a limited duration to help increase testing capacity in support of their individualized reopening and testing plans.
    • Once sourced and procured, the intent is to have this material shipped directly to a single location within each state, territory or tribe for their ultimate distribution.
    • Each state, territory and tribal will develop its own distribution strategy to align with its testing plan and unique needs.
  • As of April 27, CDC, state, and local public health labs and other laboratories have tested more than 5.6 million samples.
    • States should be making full use of the 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.
  • On April 28, the FDA issued a new video resource explaining Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs), one of several tools FDA uses to help make important medical products available quickly during public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • EUAs provide more timely access to drugs, diagnostic tests and/or other critical medical products that can help diagnose, treat and/or prevent COVID-19.
    • To date, the FDA has issued 50 individual emergency use authorizations for test kit manufacturers and laboratories.
  • As of April 28, FEMA, HHS, and the private sector combined have coordinated the delivery of or are currently shipping: 75 million N95 respirators, 107.7 million surgical masks, 7.2 million face shields, 15.3 million surgical gowns, 814.8 million gloves, 10,153 ventilators and 8,450 federal medical station beds.
  • On April 27, the Small Business Administration relaunched the Paycheck Protection Program after distributing $350 billion in loans to 1.6 million businesses earlier this month. Including last week’s funding bill, more than $670 billion is available for the loan program in total. 

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