Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 13 released updated recommendations for COVID-19 testing, including interim testing guidelines for nursing home residents and healthcare personnel. Recommendations also include testing strategies for high-density critical infrastructure workplaces after a COVID-19 case is identified. The consolidated recommendations for…

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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 The Joint Commission on June 10 issued a new Quick Safety: “Promoting psychosocial well-being of healthcare staff during crisis.” The Joint Commission says it’s critical that healthcare organizations have systems in place to support institutional and individual resilience to mitigate and respond to the psychological toll of crises…

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Editor's Note This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of 382 young adult US Navy service members aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier during a COVID-19 outbreak found that: 59.70% had reactive antibodies 59.2% also had neutralizing antibodies, an indicator of at least short-term immunity 81.5% reported…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 10 released a COVID-19 update announcing the following actions taken in its response to the pandemic: The FDA and National Institutes of Health have updated the CURE ID crowd-sourcing app to make it easier for healthcare providers to share their…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 9 released a guide for healthcare facilities to resume in-person, non-emergent, non-COVID-19 services in states and regions with no evidence of COVID-19 resurgence. Recommendations include: designating separate areas for COVID-19 care establishing non-COVID-19 care zones where patients can…

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Editor's Note Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving procedure whose benefits outweigh the risk of COVID-19 infection, finds this study. University of Washington, Seattle, researchers’ analysis of data found that from January 1 to April 15, emergency medical services (EMS) responded to 1,067 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests of which 478…

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Editor's Note Citing a response to public health concerns, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on June 7 reissued certain emergency use authorizations (EUAs) to specify which respirators are appropriate for decontamination and reuse. The FDA determined that certain respirators should not be decontaminated for reuse by healthcare professionals during…

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Editor's Note This study finds that between March 11 and April 21, nearly 42% fewer patients were admitted to Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals, compared with the preceding 6 weeks, including those who had conditions that generally required emergency treatment. The number of patients admitted decreased from 77,624 to 45,155, including…

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Editor's Note The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) have both retracted COVID-19 treatment studies because of concerns about the validity of the data and how the research was conducted by Chicago-based Surgisphere Corp, the June 4 Medscape Medical News reports. Authors of the Lancet study, which was…

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