National COVID-19 Update

April 8, 2020

Current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures show a total of 395,011 confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. in 55 states and U.S. territories, with 12,754 deaths. New York state leads the nation with more than 138,000 cases, followed by New Jersey which has more than 44,000 cases and Michigan which has nearly 19,000 cases.

On Thurs., April 9 from 4-5 p.m. CT, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold “office hours” on COVID-19 to provide hospitals, health systems, and providers an opportunity to ask questions of CMS officials regarding temporary flexibilities and allowances granted to providers during the public health emergency. CMS encourages providers to email questions in advance to partnership@cms.hhs.gov. There will also be a live question and answer session. To join the call, dial 833-614-0820. The passcode is 1881716. Join via audio webcast link by registering here.

CMS has released guidance on non-emergent, elective medical services and treatment recommendations. Because recommendations are expected to be refined over the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS urges healthcare facilities and clinicians to consider following a tiered approach to curtailing non-emergent, elective medical services and treatment.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection office has seized counterfeit 3M N95 masks. These counterfeit masks cannot be guaranteed to provide the same protection as those manufactured by 3M. Verify the authenticity of 3M N95 on the 3M website. A 3M counterfeit, fraud and price gauging fact sheet is available here.

The latest WHO situation report shows more than 1.35 million COVID-19 cases globally, with over 79,200 deaths. The European Region leads the world in cases and deaths, with more than 720,000 confirmed cases with over 57,300 deaths. The Region of the Americas (includes the U.S.) follows, reporting more than 417,000 cases and more than 12,500 deaths.