Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Whole-of-America Response
In support of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic response, FEMA provides the following: FEMA Project Airbridge video Advisory; Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Preservation Best Practices Advisory and Fact Sheet, and a Resource Requests from the International Reagent Resource (IRR) Advisory and Fact Sheet.
FEMA Project Airbridge
To efficiently maintain the country’s existing medical supply chain infrastructure, FEMA augments the existing supply chain through a variety of strategies, to include FEMA Project Airbridge.
FEMA created Project Airbridge to reduce the amount of time it takes for U.S. medical supply distributors to get commercially sourced and procured Personal Protective Equipment and other critical supplies into the country for their respective customers. FEMA is doing this by covering the cost to fly supplies into the U.S. from overseas factories, cutting the amount of time it takes to ship supplies from weeks to days.
FEMA provides distributors with up-to-date information on the locations across the country hardest hit by COVID-19 or in most need of resources now and in the future. As part of the current agreement with distributors, 50 percent of the supplies on each plane are directed by the distributors to customers within hotspot areas with the most critical needs for those supplies. The HHS and FEMA determine hotspot areas based on CDC data.
A brief video on Project Airbridge is available on FEMA Website<https://www.fema.gov/c
Project Airbridge Advisory: Attachment [1]
Personal Protective Equipment Preservation Best Practices
This Personal Protective Equipment Preservation Best Practices Fact Sheet (attached) summarizes best practices for national implementation to sustain personal protective equipment (PPE) while ensuring the protection of workers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic response.
The objective of the COVID-19 National Strategy for Addressing PPE Shortage is to ensure protection against COVID-19 for healthcare workers, first responders, and patients by implementing three pillars of practice: reduce, reuse, and repurpose. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic response and associated PPE shortages, implementation of contingency and crisis capacity plans may be necessary to ensure continued availability of protective gear.
This fact sheet amplifies the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strategies on conventional, contingency and crisis capacity strategies for optimizing PPE. All U.S. healthcare facilities should begin using PPE contingency strategies now and may need to consider crisis capacity strategies if experiencing PPE shortages.
Preserving Personal Protective Equipment Best Practices Advisory: Attachment [2]
Preserving Personal Protective Equipment Best Practices Fact Sheet: Attachment [3]
Resource Requests from the International Reagent Resource
The International Reagent Resource (IRR), established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), acquires, authenticates, and produces reagents that scientists need to carry out basic research and develop improved diagnostic tests, vaccines, and detection methods.
The (IRR) Fact Sheet (attached) outlines a simplified process for states and territories to make resource requests from the IRR. Consolidating testing supplies under the IRR alleviates burden on public health labs, which increases efficiency and reduces need to work with separate, individual suppliers for swabs, reagents, and other diagnostic testing supplies.
International Reagent Resource Advisory: Attachment [4]
International Reagent Resource Fact Sheet: Attachment [5]