Army Corps of Engineers Working with 18 States to Surge Hospital Space

The Army Corps of Engineers is helping New York turn existing facilities into hospital space to help the state address an expected surge of patients seeking treatment for coronavirus.

“We’re talking about over 10,000 [hospital rooms] that we are looking at right now,” Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite told reporters on Friday at the Pentagon.

While the Army Corps of Engineers does not actually build projects itself, its engineers make assessments on projects that are needed and work with private contractors to build them.

“We got money from FEMA to go into buildings on Tuesday night. We did the Javits Center yesterday, and we were into some of the SUNY schools yesterday,” he said.

“Today, my engineers were walking through 10 other buildings — five of those are hotel-like capabilities, and five of those are open spaces,” he said.

The agency is currently working with at least 18 states to expand available hospital bed space to address potential shortages.

A recent USA Today study said that in the worst case scenario — if everyone who gets ill requires hospitalization — the civilian hospital system would have 5.7 patients for every bed.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday the state predicts that as many as 110,000 people will need beds in 45 days, when the state currently has 53,000 beds.

Semonite said his agency is looking at turning hotels, college dormitories, and large spaces into temporary healthcare facilities.

“We cut a contract to be able to have the state set up a lease with that particular facility…and we would go in and turn this into an ICU-like facility,” he said.

He said there are four phases to converting an existing space to a medical facility: First, a state has to nominate facilities in prioritized order. Second, the Army Corps of Engineers, working with private contractors, has to come in and modify those facilities. Third, supplies need to be placed there. Fourth, the state needs to staff it.

“Think of the second floor of a standard hotel. The rooms would be like a hotel room, and then we would build nurses’ stations in the halls, we would have all of the equipment, wireless going into the nurses’ stations,” he said.

Every room would have to have negative air pressure, and doors outfitted with plastic with zippers on them. “It’s a relatively simple process,” Semonite said.

He acknowledged time is of the essence, with most governors predicting a peak somewhere around the middle of April. He said the agency is dealing with the states with the biggest demand first.

“We’re looking very hard at California, the state of Washington, we’ve already been in New Jersey,” he said. “We’re really looking at where’s the biggest demand, so we go to those states first.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/21/army-corps-of-engineers-working-with-18-states-to-surge-hospital-space/

The Lockdown of America Begins

On Thursday night, Governor Gavin Newsome took unprecedented action and locked down the entire state of California. The following day, Governor Andrew Cuomo locked down the state of New York and Gov. J.B. Pritzker locked down the state of Illinois.

Today, as of the time of publication, 70 million Americans are in mandatory isolation at home in the hopes of stopping – or at least slowing down – the Covid-19 virus that is beginning to spread exponentially across the country.

Borders between the US, Canada, and Mexico have also been closed by mutual consent between the three governments.

While this may be necessary to curb the virus so as not to overwhelm the medical system, many Americans are feeling distinctly uneasy about their movements being restricted. Especially worrisome is the idea of the National Guard being brought in to enforce the lockdowns, as has been discussed. Somewhere, there’s a fine line between maintaining our constitutional rights and the need to stop a global pandemic.

What do the lockdowns entail?

In all three states, non-essential businesses will be closed and residents have been ordered to stay in their homes unless they must leave for “vital reasons.” Many of our largest cities are encompassed in the lockdown: New York City, Chicago, Los Angelos, San Francisco, and San Diego.

All sorts of euphemisms are being used for the situation. Cuomo prefers to call this a “pause.” California is referring to this as “safer at home.” And Illinois is calling it “shelter in place.”

But for all the nice-sounding words, it is what it is: a lockdown on a massive scale.

California

The most populous state in the country with 40 million residents, on March 19th, California was the first to lock down entirely and the situation will remain in effect “indefinitely.”

“We’re going to keep the grocery stores open,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that you’re getting critical medical supplies. You can still take your kids outside, practicing common sense and social distancing. You can still walk your dog, you can still pick up food at one of our distribution centers, at a restaurant, at a drive-thru — all those things we will still be able to do.” (source)

Newsom is confident that Californians will be cooperative.

The order will not be enforced by law enforcement, he added.

“I don’t believe the people of California need to be told through law enforcement that it’s appropriate just to home-isolate, protect themselves,” Newsom said. “We are confident that the people of the state of California will abide by it and do the right thing.” (source)

However, Newsom instructed the National Guard to be on alert and has activated about “500 guard personnel to help with humanitarian work and food distribution.”

https://www.theorganicprepper.com/the-lockdown-of-america-begins/

Funny af Russia did it BS in Aus MSM according to the CIA World Factbook

Why does Russia have fewer coronavirus cases than Luxembourg?

Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week his country managed to stop the mass spread of coronavirus - and that the situation was "under control," thanks to early and aggressive measures to keep more people from getting the disease.

Does Russia have coronavirus under control? According to information released by Russian officials, Putin's strategy seems to have worked. The number of confirmed Russian coronavirus cases is surprisingly low, despite Russia sharing a lengthy border with China and recording its first case back in January.

https://www.9news.com.au/world/coronavirus-what-is-happening-with-russia/855d06eb-62dc-4f24-9164-d7d0c14b754c

FDA Approves Coronavirus Test That Can Provide Results In 45 Minutes

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of a coronavirus test that can detect the virus within 45 minutes, the company that makes the tests announced on Saturday.

The FDA approved the test, created by Cepheid, a California-based medical device company, through Emergency Use Authorization, a process the helps circumvent the lengthy approval process for drugs, medical supplies and diagnostic measures.

Cepheid said that its “point-of-care” test is compatible with 23,000 automated systems it has in hospitals around the world. Five thousand of those are in the United States, the company said in a statement.

“We have developed a test that provides reference lab-quality results in multiple settings where actionable treatment information is needed quickly,” Dr. David Persing, Chief Medical and Technology Officer at Cepheid, said in the statement.

“Our automated systems do not require users to have specialty training to perform testing — they are capable of running 24/7, with many systems already doing so today.”

Cepheid said the test will begin shipping out next week.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/21/fda-approves-cepheid-coronavirus-test-45-minutes/