COVID-19 Update, 1/22/21

Keeping Physicians in Mind and Informed.

January 22, 2021 | ARKMED.org/covid19

Status Update as of 1/21/21 from ADH Website:

View the ADH COVID-19 Dashboard here.

Total cumulative cases in Arkansas - 279,220
New confirmed cases since 1/20- 3,106
Active cases - 14,578
Recovered patients - 205,950
Deaths - 4,496
Patients in the hospital - 1,160
Patients on ventilators - 195

AMA Update on Biden Administration National Strategy on COVID-19 and Pandemic Preparedness

From the American Medical Association: Yesterday, President Biden unveiled a significant national strategy for handling COVID-19 and addressing pandemic preparedness generally. The President also took initial steps to immediately implement portions of this strategy, issuing several executive orders and memoranda.

Executive Orders signed January 21 include:

Establishing the COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board and Ensuring a Sustainable Public Health Workforce for COVID-19 and Other Biological Threats: Establishes a Pandemic Testing board to identify issues and assist in implementation of testing solutions; directs actions to address the cost of COVID-19 testing; Establishes a public health workforce plan
Protecting Worker Health and Safety: Address potential changes within OSHA and at state level to better protect workers from COVID-19 and ensure workers previously not identified but at risk have adequate protections
Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers: Identifies actions to assist in the safe reopening of schools and early childhood education
Ensuring Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery: Establishes a COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force; Identified actions to ensure equitable response, including those to address vaccine hesitancy
Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain: Requires an immediate inventory of response supplies and identification of areas of need; directs use of Defense Production Act to address shortages
Ensuring a data-driven response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats: Enhances COVID-19 data collection and seeks to strengthen public health infrastructure
Improving and Expanding Access for COVID-19 Care and Treatments: Mandates development of plans to support research that assist in advancing COVID-19 therapies; seeks to improve capacity to address COVID-19 in a variety of settings
Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel: Immediately requires masks on domestic forms of transportation (airplanes, trains, buses, etc.) and requires negative COVID-19 tests, quarantine or combination thereof for entry into the United States from travel abroad.

Memoranda issued on January 21 include:

Directive to Extend Federal Support to Governor’s Use of National Guard to Respond to COVID-19 and to Increase Reimbursement and other Assistance Provided to States: Provides full federal funding for National Guard response to COVID-19; Provides fully-funded FEMA assistance to state, local, and tribal efforts to reopen and operate schools, child care facilities, healthcare systems, shelters, transit systems and others.

ACHI Update: COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Progresses Slowly

On Monday, Arkansas opened up parts of Phase 1-B of the state’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy. However, as the number of eligible individuals will continue to exceed vaccine supply for the foreseeable future, “this is not a time to weaken our efforts,” says ACHI President and CEO Dr. Joe Thompson. “We need to continue to take all precautions to break the transmission of this virus. Wear a mask, wash your hands, and stay six feet apart.”

PPE

View our information on personal protective equipment at

ARKMED.org/ppe

or visit

arkansasready.com/ppe for Arkansas PPE vendors.

Telemedicine

View the latest information from insurance carriers, HIPAA, and other sources on telemedicine during the COVID-19 crisis at ARKMED.org/telemedicine

Financial Resources

We've compiled all of the financial resources that you may need for your clinic or practice during the COVID-19 crisis at https://www.arkmed.org/financial-assistance-during-covid-19/.

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Got Questions? Let Us Help.

The Arkansas Medical Society is here to serve our physician members and their medical teams. On our website, we have a place that you can send us questions or share what you're experiencing. Visit ARKMED.org/covid19 and click on the Got Questions box. We will respond to your question as soon as possible. Thank you for your hard work and together we will make it through this crisis.

For more AMS COVID-19 Resources, visit ARKMED.org/covid19.