Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention on March 17 updated its strategies for optimizing personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies, including facemasks. The strategies are based on surge capacity and include: *Conventional capacity: Patient care is provided without any change in daily practices. Use facemasks according to product…

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Editor's Note This first preliminary description of outcomes in COVID-19 patients in the US between February 12 and March 16, 2020, indicates that fatalities were: 10% to 27% in patients aged 85 or more 3% to 11% in patients aged 65-84 years 1% to 3% in patients aged 55-64 years…

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Editor's Note In consultation with clinical experts and in response to government guidance that hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) postpone elective surgical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) released a statement March 18 on how and when facilities should proceed with cases that should…

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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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Hospitals have long dominated the realms of infection control and antibiotic overuse. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), which typically release patients the same day of a procedure, use antibiotics less frequently than other facilities, and most do not have an antimicrobial stewardship program. However, some ASC leaders and organizations are encouraging…

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Editor's Note The American College of Radiology (ACR) on March 11 issued a recommendation that CT scans not be used as a first-line screening test to diagnose COVID-19, the March 11 AuntMinnie.com reports. Though early reports from China indicated that CT could detect COVID-19, even when DNA tests were negative,…

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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 In a March 4 press release, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) called on all healthcare providers to make sure they are implementing infection control practices, which they are required to maintain at all times, in an effort to limit the spread of the Novel Coronavirus…

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