San Bernardino
San Bernardino County Supervisor Lovingood recently addressed constituents on the impact and spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19.
“Our office has received regular briefings from the White House,” he noted (although that may not be assuring to some).
He continued, “The Trump administration has rolled out coronavirus mitigation guidelines called 15 Days to Slow the Spread. The response and recovery is locally executed, state managed, and federally supported,” Lovingood stressed. Following are some of the administration’s initiatives:
• The FDA issued emergency approval for new commercial coronavirus tests to significantly expand testing across the country. (To date, there is still a shortage of tests in many areas.)
• The President signed legislation that will ensure Americans are able to be tested for free provided they meet the criteria for testing in their community, in most areas across the nation those wishing to be tested must have a doctor’s referral.
• The FDA cut red tape to expand testing availability. Thursday, March 19, the President announced the approval of existing drugs to test a COVID-19 treatment. The FDA continues to expand its work regarding therapeutic options and has a vaccine trial underway.
• The President signed a memorandum directing his Administration to make general-use face masks available to healthcare workers. To date, those face masks have not materialized and as a result, many states are being forced to produce their own.
• Health and Human Services announced it will be purchasing 500 million N95 respirators for the Strategic National Stockpile—the nation is waiting.
• The Department of Defense announced it will be providing 5 million respirator masks and 2,000 specialized ventilators to assist.
• The President signed legislation removing restrictions that prevented manufacturers from selling industrial masks—which can readily protect healthcare workers—directly to hospitals.
• The Small Business Administration (SBA) is offering low-interest federal disaster loans for working capital to California small businesses suffering substantial economic injury as a result of the Coronavirus. Download an application at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.
“These are challenging times, and we are hopeful as each of these positive efforts are put in place to aggressively address the crisis,” Lovingood stressed. “With everyone working together and doing their part, we will beat coronavirus. You have my continued commitment of service and assistance. Let us know how we can help.”
