Editor's Note Of 41 healthcare workers who were exposed to aerosol-generating procedures for at least 10 minutes at a distance of 6.5 feet from a patient with severe pneumonia before he was diagnosed with COVID-19, none contracted the disease. The patient, a middle-aged man with diabetes and hyperlipidemia, was hospitalized…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) on March 13 updated its recommendations for the management of elective surgical procedures during the COVID-19 outbreak. Among the recommendations: Each hospital, healthcare system, and surgeon should: review all scheduled elective procedures with a plan to minimize, postpone, or cancel elective operations,…

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Editor's Note The first person-to person transmission of COVID-19 occurred between two people in Illinois with prolonged, unprotected exposure while Patient 1 was symptomatic, this study finds. Patient 1, a woman in her 60s, returned from China in mid-January. One week later, she was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia…

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Editor's Note Surgisphere Corporation (Palatine, Illinois) on March 12 announced the availability of its new rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19 that uses artificial intelligence (AI). With advanced machine learning, Surgisphere has developed an intelligent tool that uses three common lab tests to identify patients likely to have COVID-19 infection. With…

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Editor's Note Combining a mathematical model of COVID-19 transmission with four datasets from within and outside Wuhan, China, researchers with the Centre for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 working group, estimated how transmission in Wuhan varied between December 2019 (before travel restrictions) and February 2020 (after travel restrictions) and…

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Editor's Note This study led by Johns Hopkins researchers provides additional evidence of a median incubation period of approximately 5.1 days for the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Of 181 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (from China and other countries) with identifiable exposure and symptom onset windows in the analysis, the…

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Editor's Note This retrospective, multicenter study from four hospitals in Wuhan, China, found that Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) specific guidelines for emergency surgical procedures in patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection can effectively prevent cross-infection in the OR. The guidelines include: negative pressure ORs level 3 protective measures for…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 2 announced that it had joined with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make more respirators, including certain N95s, available to healthcare personnel during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Currently, the majority of respirators are used in industrial…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on February 27 updated its guidance for healthcare professionals evaluating and reporting patients under investigation for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The CDC has developed clinical criteria to guide patient evaluation based on what is known about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome…

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Editor's Note In a February 25 telebriefing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) will spread in the US, and hospitals and communities should begin ramping up their preparedness efforts, AHA Today reports. The CDC urged communities to implement non-pharmaceutical interventions or community…

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