Editor's Note This decision analytical model from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that transmission of COVID-19 by asymptomatic individuals accounts for more than half of all transmissions. Combining baseline assumptions that peak infectiousness occurs at the median of symptom onset and that 30% never develop…

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Editor's Note Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on January 8 announced the renewal of the COVID-19 national public health emergency declaration, the American Hospital Association reports. The renewal is effective January 21 and will last 90 days. The declaration provides hospitals, health systems, and healthcare workers…

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Editor's Note Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH, President and CEO of Ofstead & Associates, has announced that Ofstead & Associates is offering all of their webinars for free until January 21. The CE-eligible webinars include: Uncovering device adverse events to improve safety for patients and personnel Respiratory protection: Unmasked. A selection…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on January 6, 2020, issued an update on offsite surveys and reviews, noting that it had stopped most onsite surveys and reviews from March 16 to May 31, 2020. During that time they developed processes for conducting offsite or virtual events. As of mid-December, more…

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Editor's Note From December 14 to December 23, 2020, monitoring by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System found 4,393 (0.2%) adverse events after administration of 1,893,360 first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Of these adverse events, 21 were determined to be cases…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on January 6, 2021, reported on an online questionnaire sent to organizations in September 2020 to learn about their challenges and needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 735 respondents, representing a variety of healthcare settings, reported: a medium to high impact on their…

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Editor’s Note In this study of nursing home residents with COVID-19, increased age, male gender, and impaired cognitive and physical function were independent risk factors for all-cause 30-day mortality. Of 5,256 nursing home residents with COVID-19 in 351 US nursing homes: Odds of death were 1.46 times higher for residents…

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Editor’s Note As of January 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the number of distributed COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna is 17,020,575 doses, with 4,836,469 already administered.

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Editor’s Note The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), on December 31, 2020, posted in the Federal Register that it had extended its temporary final rule, “Prioritization and Allocation of Certain Scarce and Critical Health and Medical Resources for Domestic Use,” with changes, through June 30, 2021. The rule designates certain…

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Editor’s Note On December 20, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) updated its interim vaccine allocation recommendations. In Phase 1b, COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to persons aged 75 years or more and non-healthcare frontline essential workers. In Phase 1c, the vaccine should be…

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