As part of NIOSH’s efforts to keep our stakeholders up to date on the CDC and NIOSH coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response, below is a summary of new information posted this week.

General Resources 
Guidance for Cleaning and Disinfecting
CDC has published Reopening Guidance for Cleaning and Disinfecting Public Spaces, Workplaces, Businesses, Schools, and Homes. Reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19 by cleaning and disinfection is an important part of reopening public spaces that will require careful planning.

Personal Protective Equipment Burn Rate Mobile App
The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Burn Rate Calculator is now available as a mobile app. Facilities can use the App to calculate their average PPE consumption rate or “burn rate.” The app estimates how many days a PPE supply will last given current inventory levels and PPE burn rate. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices. 

Job Specific Resources 
Law Enforcement Personnel Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
CDC has published FAQs for Law Enforcement Agencies and Personnel that address questions such as how to screen personnel for signs and symptoms of COVID-19, how law enforcement can get personal protective equipment, additional precautions law enforcement should take during death investigations, and where to take a person in custody who shows symptoms of COVID-19.

Meat and Poultry Processing Guidance
CDC and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have published Guidance for Meat and Poultry Processing Workers and Employers. Multiple outbreaks of COVID-19 among meat and poultry processing facility workers have occurred in the United States recently.

For more information, please visit the COVID-19 webpage. To stay up to date on new developments, sign up for the COVID-19 newsletter.

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By  Brandon Anderegg

MaskForce can now manufacturer personal protective equipment at scale with the goal of producing as many as 10,000 masks a day, the organization recently announced.
Milwaukee-area manufacturers and organizations recently collaborated to design an N-95 style mask that could be used by health care professionals across the country. MaskForce started its efforts in March to meet the demand for personal protective equipment in Wisconsin.
An initial production run of 30,000 face masks is underway at Husco’s headquarters in Waukesha. The first shipment was sent to Milwaukee-area first responders on Wednesday.
 In addition to Husco, the MaskForce consists of more than 50 organizations including Briggs & Stratton Corp., Midwest Composite Technologies, health care organizations and educational institutions. The consortium used their collective expertise to build a mask design that not only meets today’s PPE standards, but can also be produced at scale.
“MaskForce is both an example of American manufacturing ingenuity and the good that can be accomplished when multiple stakeholders collaborate to serve the community,” said Austin Ramirez, Husco chief executive officer. “I am grateful to all the MaskForce collaborators for their time, expertise, and goodwill.”
The MaskForce’s PPE has not been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, the MaskForce face mask is temporarily authorized pursuant to an FDA emergency use authorization.
The MaskForce team tested hundreds of suitable materials and collaborated with multiple university labs, medical professionals and first responders before finalizing the production design.
The consortium is also pursuing NIOSH-N95 certification for its masks, which means the respirator blocks at least 95 percent of very small test particles, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The mask is priced close to cost, with any profits in 2020 reinvested back into the community, according to a press release. In addition to accelerating production of the current model, the MaskForce is developing a smaller form-factor mask.
“Among our core values is practical innovation, which drives us to consistently and creatively push the boundary of what is possible to create immediate value,” Ramirez said.
Get more news and insight in the April 27 issue of BizTimes Milwaukee. Subscribe to get updates in your inbox here.

Critical Shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• Worked with international suppliers to deliver 575,000 FDA-certified respirators to New York City hospitals, working through Governor Cuomo’s procurement office.
• Connected 100,000 FDA-certified respirators to Masks for America, a volunteer coalition of everyday Americans joining forces to deliver protective masks directly to frontline healthcare workers in COVID-19 hotspots.
• Prepared guidelines, assisted purchases, and piloted novel solutions to decontaminate respirators so they can be reused multiple times, extending their lifecycle.

Implementing Social Policies/NPIs

• Launched an NPI dashboard that provides real-time tracking of state-wide NPI implementation. As states begin relaxing NPIs, we’ll be able to see the impact.

Achieving Data-Driven Clinical Care Outcomes

• Developing a minimal common data set  for COVID-19, along with EHR vendors, which will help aggregate data from across the U.S. The first use case will be researching clinical outcomes on treatments such as hydroxychloroquine.
• Supporting the rapid scale-up of telemedicine as part of a fully integrated healthcare delivery system. See a starting set of best practices in the Resource Library.
• Helping Mayo Clinic manage a national convalescent plasma trial , which is attracting thousands of health systems and patients.

REQUEST: Please send us your best practices for setting up field hospitals and facilities for recovering COVID-19 patients. Include operations (equipment, human resource and management protocols), as well as clinical guidelines (patient triage, isolation, treatment). Submit to c19-hcc-best-practices@mitre.org
We encourage coalition members to share this information with their relevant networks.

 COLLABORATION AND COORDINATION TO SAVE LIVES
Mitigating the worst effects of the coronavirus pandemic requires bold, fast action. The COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition is a private-sector led response that brings together healthcare organizations, technology firms, nonprofits, academia, and startups to preserve the healthcare delivery system and help protect U.S. populations. Together, we’re coordinating our collective expertise, capabilities, data and insights to provide data-driven, real-time insights to improve clinical outcomes.
With top experts and industry leaders sharing plans and resources – and working collaboratively – we can deploy resources more effectively and offer better situational awareness to those at the front lines.
View our Website Demo 

REAL-TIME, SCALABLE IMPACT TO IMPROVE HEALTH OUTCOMES We are organizing around the most immediate, near-term challenges confronting healthcare delivery systems by working to:

• Improve clinical care outcomes from real-time, data-driven learning from patient data
  
• Stabilize healthcare systems during extreme demand by accelerating telehealth, home care, and alternative options to reduce load at hospitals
  
• Support an affordable and scalable supply chain for supplies and equipment
• Inform and advocate for coordinated social policies based on data-driven insights