COVID-19 Update: June 2, 2020

Coronavirus update for Monday, June 2 as of 2:45 p.m.

The following is the latest information from the state and federal governments as of 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2.

Department of Health

The Department of Health has updated its guidance on risk assessment and work restrictions for health care personnel that it originally issued in early March. This update simplifies the determination of risk exposures warranting work restriction.

Department of Health – by the numbers

Yesterday’s new case count was higher than the previous day and the death count soared.
More than 18,300 long-term-care residents and workers have contracted COVID-19.
As have more than 5500 health care workers.
1302 Pennsylvanians are currently hospitalized for COVID-19, with 270 of them on ventilators.
45 percent of state hospitals’ acute-care beds, 38 percent of their ICU beds, and 24 percent of their pediatric ICU beds are currently unoccupied, as are 53 percent of their isolation rooms.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

The Quality, Safety & Oversight Group of CMS’s Center for Clinical Standards and Quality has written to state Medicaid agencies about COVID-19 survey activities, CARES Act funding, and enhanced enforcement for infection control deficiencies and quality improvement activities in nursing homes. The memo calls on states to do a more complete job of inspecting nursing homes for their infection control efforts, proposes penalties for states that fail to do so, and explains that CMS will allocate CARES Act funding based on performance-based metrics. See CMS’s detailed news release about this new policy.
CMS has updated its toolkit to help states mitigate the prevalence of COVID-19 in nursing homes.

Food and Drug Administration

On Wednesday, June 3, the FDA will host a virtual town hall for clinical laboratories and commercial manufacturers that are developing or have developed diagnostic tests for COVID-19. The purpose of this town hall is to help answer technical questions about the development and validation of COVID-19 tests. For more information about the town hall, go here.
The FDA has issued emergency use authorization for a specific commercial device for use in hospitals to provide temporary right ventricular support for up to 14 days for critical care patients suffering from acute right heart failure or decompensation caused by complications related to COVID-19.

The Joint Commission

The Joint Commission has announced that it will resume regular surveys and reviews in this month, with its methodology modified in some respects to reflect the need to practice social distancing.