Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) News

A roughly $500 billion COVID-19 relief package failed to advance in the Senate as it fell short of receiving the necessary 60 votes.

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the health care supply chain remains strained due to the high demand for personal protective equipment.

As part of the continued work of the 100 Million Mask Challenge, AHA and the Association for Health Care Resource and Materials Management have vetted a new partnership in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shortage of personal protective equipment.

Lesley Ogden, M.D., CEO of Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Oregon, shares her hospitals’ experience during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Sept. 17 at 2 p.m. ET will host a Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity webinar on using antivirals to treat influenza and whether the U.S. could see fewer cases, as indicated by data from the Southern Hemisphere’s 2020 flu season.

An updated set of Current Procedural Terminology codes includes two for reporting medical services necessitated during the COVID-19 pandemic public health response.

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the health care supply chain remains strained due to the high demand for personal protective equipment. In this blog Q&A, Mike Schiller, senior director of supply chains for the Association for Health Care Resource and Materials Management, discusses the past, present and future state of the health care supply chain during the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency.

The National Institutes of Health announced as part of its Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative $129.3 million in contracts to nine companies for technologies that include portable point-of-care tests for immediate results and high-throughput laboratories that can return results within 24 hours.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued new surveyor guidance for COVID-19 laboratory test result reporting for Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments-certified laboratories.

The Federal Reserve Sept. 4 said that its Main Street Lending Program is now fully operational and accepting submissions of eligible loans to nonprofit organizations.

Senate Republican leaders released a roughly $500 billion COVID-19 relief package that would provide additional assistance for priorities, including small businesses, enhanced unemployment insurance, child care, COVID-19 testing and schools.

The AHA urged the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to adopt a unified set of guidelines to account for the variables associated with all issues of the eventual allocation of COVID-19 vaccine allocation.

For the last several months, disturbing and unproven theories have gained traction – mostly on social media – about the death count for COVID-19.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today released for public comment a discussion draft of a preliminary framework to assist policymakers in planning for equitable allocation of a vaccine against COVID-19.

The Food and Drug Administration further expanded the authorized use of remdesivir for treating COVID-19 patients, the agency announced. Now, remdesivir can be used for all admitted COVID-19 patients, confirmed or suspected, whether on oxygen, off oxygen or intubated.

Those with intellectual and developmental disabilities who require in-person care, including in-classroom settings, are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the directors of the National Institutes of Health-funded Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers Network said in an American Journal of Psychiatry article.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention credited universal testing of residents and staff of all 123 West Virginia nursing homes for SARS-CoV-2, irrespective of symptoms, as a key factor for limiting COVID-19 transmissions and reducing the pandemic’s impact on the state’s vulnerable populations.

Threatening to expel hospitals from the Medicare and Medicaid programs if they don’t report COVID-19 data to the federal government, which was outlined in a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services interim final rule released this week, “is ridiculous and should be rescinded,” according to a Washington Times editorial.

If you missed the Aug. 27 livestream, you can watch a replay of the latest episode of Leadership Rounds – short conversations on a range of key issues AHA Board Chair Melinda Estes, M.D., is having with hospital and health system leaders from across the country.