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The Los Angeles (LA) County Board of Supervisors (Board) and the Department of Public Health (Public Health) declared a local and public health emergency in response to increased spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus across the country and in the city of LA. Public Health simultaneously issued a declaration of a local public health emergency.
Public Health stated that none of the new cases are from community spread, and all of these new cases were exposed to COVID-19 disease through close contacts.
None of the recent cases were linked to the 1st case reported in LA County in January 2020.
“These declarations are a swift response to this emergent issue and will enhance our ability to effectively manage our response,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Chair of the Board of Supervisors. “These actions will allow us to have even greater coordination to protect our more than 10 million residents and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our communities,” she added.
Previously, the California Department of Public Health announced the most recent statistics on COVID-19. California now has 53 confirmed cases and 1 related fatality.
Fred Hutch announced on March 4, 2020, it is activating a mandatory remote work policy as part of the center’s emergency management plans. The policy, effective Thursday, March 5th, impact the organization’s Seattle-based employees, excluding essential, on-campus staff such as security and facilities management. The policy will remain in effect through March 31st, unless conditions warrant additional time.
This policy activation follows a King County Public Health announcement, recommending organizations in the greater Puget Sound region of Washington encourage their employees to work from home to avoid the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
On March 3, 2020, the WHO warned that severe and mounting disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) – caused by rising demand, panic buying, hoarding, and misuse – is putting lives at risk from the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases.
Based on WHO modeling, an estimated 89 million medical masks are required for the COVID-19 response each month. For examination gloves, that figure goes up to 76 million, while international demand for goggles stands at 1.6 million per month.
Healthcare workers rely on personal protective equipment to protect themselves and their patients from being infected and infecting others.
The WHO says it has shipped nearly half a million sets of personal protective equipment to 47 countries, but supplies are rapidly depleting.
These shortages are leaving doctors, nurses and other frontline workers dangerously ill-equipped to care for COVID-19 disease patients, due to limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, and aprons.
A press release issued by HHS on March 4, 2020, says $35 million in response funding will be provided to the CDC, which will support certain state-based efforts at COVID-19 disease control. These HHS funds will be used for monitoring of travelers, data management, lab equipment, supplies, staffing, shipping, infection control, and surge staffing.
On March 3, 2020, the World Bank Group announced it was making available an initial package of up to $12 billion in immediate support to assist countries in coping with the health and economic impacts of the global spreading of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. This financing is designed to help member countries take effective action to respond to and, where possible, lessen the tragic impacts posed by the COVID-19 disease.
