Editor's Note Universal COVID-19 testing of children before they have general anesthesia promotes efficient use of personal protective equipment (PPE), finds this study presented October 3 at the Anesthesiology 2020 annual meeting. Overall, 1,033 children who had anesthesia at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia between March 26 and May 11, 2020,…

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Editor's Note This controlled, in-vitro study investigates the minimum contact time for povidone-iodine nasal antiseptic to inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus. All laboratory work was conducted in biosafety level 3 laboratories at the Institute for Antiviral Research at Utah State University, Logan. Povidone-iodine was tested at diluted concentrations of 0.5%, 1.25%,…

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Editor's Note In an August 21 letter, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) warns that the use of passive protective barrier enclosures without negative pressure when treating patients (such as during intubation, extubation) who are known or suspected to have COVID-19 may pose increased health risk to patients and healthcare…

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Editor's Note An expert panel from the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons on July 15 issued guidelines that include recommendations for when hospitals and surgical centers can resume elective orthopedic procedures. A set of 30 recommendations are presented in four categories: General—includes criteria based on factors, such as…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) on July 10 reported that health-related workplace absenteeism rates were significantly higher than expected in March and April for some occupational groups in essential critical infrastructure categories. The following significantly exceeded their epidemic thresholds: personal care and services, including childcare…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced June 24 that it has revised its position statement on preventing nosocomial COVID-19 infections as healthcare organizations resume regular care delivery. The Joint Commission supports the following positions: Continuing to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for universal masking of staff, patients,…

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Proactive leadership, early preparation, and ongoing planning and communication have helped mitigate COVID-19 threats at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Florida. As a result, resuming elective surgical cases in early May was a relatively seamless process thanks to process improvements made before the pandemic hit. “We started working on COVID-19…

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Editor's Note Within 6 to 8 weeks of the COVID-19-outbreak, a small proportion of anesthesiologists and intensive care providers reported COVID-19 symptoms after a work-related exposure, and fewer had detectable COVID-19 antibodies, this study finds. Of 105 anesthesiologists and intensive care providers at New York City’s Columbia University Irving Medical…

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Editor's Note An international study will include more than 30,000 front-line healthcare workers to assess whether chloroquine can prevent COVID-19 or decrease its severity. Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis is the clinical coordinating center for the study. Healthcare workers will be divided randomly into four groups. Three…

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Elective surgical procedures that were temporarily suspended in mid-March are now on the table—or soon will be—at some US facilities. The ban, announced on March 18 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), was enacted to free up resources for facilities overwhelmed by surges of COVID-19 patients. On…

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