Coronavirus update for Thursday, May 21 as of 3:30 p.m.

NASH Advocacy

• NASH has written to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma to request that they extend the June 3 deadline for attesting to the terms and conditions for receiving General Distribution grants from the CARES Act’s Provider Relief Fund and use the next few weeks to develop clearer instructions about what hospitals are attesting to and what data they must provide to satisfy the program’s requirements.

Department of Health and Human Services

• HHS has again updated its CARES Act Provider Relief Fund FAQ.
• HHS has announced that it is collaborating with Astra Zeneca to make available at least 300 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine called AZD1222, with the first doses delivered as early as October of this year.
• HHS has notified skilled nursing facilities of its intent to distribute additional Provider Relief Fund grants to them.  According to email communication directly from HHS to those providers, “Each SNF will receive a fixed distribution of $50,000, plus a variable distribution ranging between $2,000 per bed for the smallest SNFs (between 5 and 25 beds) and $1,800 per bed for the largest SNFs (more than 200 beds).”
• HHS has issued an advisory opinion stating that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act preempts state licensing laws that restrict the ability of pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 diagnostic tests where HHS has authorized pharmacists to order and administer such tests.
• HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response has established a new web page featuring its portfolio of COVID-19 medical countermeasures under investigation.
• HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response also has created a new web page that specifically addresses remdesivir.
• ASPR TRACIE, sponsored by HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to provide Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (TRACIE) services, will hold a webinar on ensuring health care safety throughout the COVID-19 pandemic on June 2.
• ASPR TRACIE has posted a health care facility onboarding checklist to help hospitals and other faculties streamline staff acquisition and onboarding in times of need.
• ASPR TRACIE has introduced behavioral health guidance and resources for preventing and addressing moral injury affecting health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• The CDC updated its instructions to laboratories on how to report their COVID-19 lab data.
• The CDC updated its FAQ for laboratories on COVID-19.
• The CDC updated its web page with resources for laboratories working on COVID-19.
• The CDC has updated its interim clinical guidance for management of patients with confirmed COVID-19.
• The CDC has updated its FAQ on COVID-19 infection and prevention control in health care settings.
• The CDC has updated its interim considerations for infection prevention and control of COVID-19 in inpatient obstetric care settings.
• The CDC has updated its COVID-19 contact tracing training guidance and resources.
• The CDC has updated its web page with strategies for long-term-care facilities.

Food and Drug Administration

• The FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for an airway management isolation chamber to be used by military health care providers as an extra layer of barrier protection to prevent exposure to pathogenic biological airborne particulates during transport of patients at the time of definitive airway management or when performing medical procedures on such patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The FDA has issued an EUA for use of a continuous renal replacement therapy to treat patients with renal failure, fluid overload, or both in an acute-care environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The FDA issued an EUA for a specific commercial COVID-19 diagnostic test.
• The FDA has removed from its list of available serology tests 27 individual tests because their sponsors did not meet additional filing requirements or problems arose with the tests.  (Scroll down to the question about removed serology tests).

Federal Funding Opportunities for Hospitals

• NASH has prepared a document that collects and presents in one place the various new federal funding opportunities for hospitals resulting from legislation addressing the COVID-19 public health emergency.  Find that document here.

(To receive this daily update directly, sign up for our mailing list at info@safetynetalliance.org.)