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The US Army is assembling a 250-bed field hospital at the CenturyLink Event Center in Seattle, Washington, that’s meant to treat non-COVID-19 patients.
This new hospital enables local hospitals to free up their own beds to care for those who have contracted the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus generate disease, called COVID-19, the commander of the 627th Hospital Center said on April 2, 2020.
Army Lt. Col. Jason Hughes, commander of the 10th Field Hospital, said his unit will be providing 148 beds to the facility, including 48 intensive care unit beds. The 10th Field Hospital also includes an emergency room, operating suites, a lab, a microbiology unit, blood banking capability, X-ray capability and services for mental and spiritual health.
He described it as "a one-stop-shop for your mind, body, and soul."
"These soldiers are excited to be here and do their mission," Hughes said. "That's why they signed up: to serve the nation, raise their right hand and come and serve the American people, whether that's abroad or, in this case, at home."
The field hospital is still being set up, and the expectation is that by next week it will be ready to take on patients, Hughes said.
While some of the 500 personnel assigned to the field hospital are busy constructing the facility, others are working closely with local officials to develop plans for determining what patients will come to the hospital and how they will get there, he said.
On April 02, 2020, Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced that it has entered into a formal partnership with the U.S. government to expedite development of a plasma-derived therapy for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Emergent has received $14.5 million in support of its COVID-HIG program, one of two hyperimmune development programs announced in March.
COVID-HIG is a candidate human hyperimmune product being developed as a potential treatment for COVID-19 in severe hospitalized patients and high-risk, acute symptomatic patients to prevent progression to severe symptoms.
COVID-HIG will be manufactured using plasma donations from people who have recovered from COVID-19 with antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
On April 2, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the distribution of hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE), including approximately 192,000 N95 respirator masks,
In addition to the N95 respirator masks, the supplies found included 598,000 medical grade gloves and 130,000 surgical masks, procedure masks, N100 masks, surgical gowns, disinfectant towels, particulate filters, bottles of hand sanitizer, and bottles of spray disinfectant.
HHS will pay the owner of the hoarded equipment pre-COVID-19 outbreak fair market value for the supplies.
After inspecting the supplies, HHS arranged for the delivery of the PPE to the New Jersey Department of Health, the New York State Department of Health and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
On April 2, 2020, Stephen M. Hahn, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs said 'Some of those first responders and healthcare heroes are the FDA’s U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps officers, who are uniformed service members who work in healthcare-related careers such as pharmacy and health sciences.
Among HHS agencies, the FDA is privileged to have the 2nd highest number of USPHS Commissioned Corps officers serving in our ranks—more than 1,100 officers in total. This allows us to truly be on call 24/7 to protect America’s food supply and essential medicines, and to ensure the safety of life-saving medical devices, vaccines and the blood supply, during this pandemic.
Recently, I spoke with some of the officers who have returned to their home duty stations after deployment and heard how much they are doing to support our mission.
I cannot overstate how impressed I am with these USPHSexperts. I am humbled to be able to work again with the Commissioned Corps in such a crucial way.
Our colleagues’ service to the nation is greatly appreciated and I commend them.
According to a tweet on April 1, 2020, by the US Ambassador to the United Kindom Woody Johnson, 'If you are a U.S. citizen and want to fly to the USA, do it now. Nobody knows how long that will last.'
Previously, the US Department of State has issued a Global Level 4 Health Advisory on March 31, 2020, advising U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19.
The U.S. Embassy website in the UK published updates for travelers, such as the following:
- Commercial flights are still available from multiple UK airports connecting to London Heathrow for direct flights to the United States.
- Trains from Scotland to London are also still available; however, this may change at any moment.
- Most hotels in the UK have closed until further notice, per UK government guidance issued on March 23rd.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on April 2nd he is urging Americans who are still abroad and who want to get home to do so “immediately.” He said commercial and government-chartered flights could soon stop due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a new study, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is among the more contagious pathogens ever known. This non-peer-reviewed study published on March 31, 2020, shows that asymptomatic individuals are major drivers for the growth of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is because the viral loads of asymptomatic carriers are similar to those in symptomatic carriers and may have the same level of infectiousness, says this study.
These researchers say ... the most recent data at the time of publication, SARS-CoV-2 has a large basic reproduction number (R0).
This analysis is different from the SARS outbreak in 2003 when only symptomatic patients passed the virus to others.