Key Points

Updated: July 06, 2020

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ICYMI (Week of June 27-30)

• There are now over 10 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.

• The CDC has updated its list and criteria of individuals (at any age) who are at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Further information can be found here.

  • People of any age with the following conditions are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19: Chronic kidney disease; COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease); Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant; Obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30 or higher); Serious heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies; Sickle cell disease; Type 2 diabetes mellitus

  • Based on the CDC’s current knowledge, people with the following conditions might be at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19: Asthma (moderate-to-severe); Cerebrovascular disease (affects blood vessels and blood supply to the brain); Cystic fibrosis; Hypertension or high blood pressure; Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from blood or bone marrow transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids, or use of other immune weakening medicines; Neurologic conditions, such as dementia; Liver disease; Pregnancy; Pulmonary fibrosis (having damaged or scarred lung tissues); Smoking; Thalassemia (a type of blood disorder); Type 1 diabetes mellitus

• The CDC recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings when around people outside of their household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.

  • Cloth face coverings should NOT be worn by children under the age of 2 or anyone who has trouble breathing, is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.

• With the increased spread of COVID-19 across many states, today’s Q&A focuses on updates to employee travel (business or vacation) with an updated TAG Risk Matrix to determine risk-based travel policies. The risk matrix has been updated with data from this past week (June 22 – 28, 2020). Read more in today’s Recommendations for Industry.

• With the increased spread of COVID-19 across many states, today’s Recommendations for Industry explores a recent NY Times article discussing COVID-19 apparent spread through “superspreader events” which may help in its control. Read more in today’s Recommendations for Industry.

• The World Health Organization has come out with its timeline of WHO’s response to COVID-19; you can track the entire timeline from the start until now, here on their site. 

• With the increased spread of COVID-19 across many states, upcoming holidays, and good weather, we’ve received questions about employee’s off-time. In today’s Recommendations for Industry Q&A, we touch upon how concerned you should be about what your employees are doing during their off-time (and if they are remaining protective against COVID-19). Read more in today’s Recommendations for Industry.

• Starting next week, we will be moving to a Monday/Wednesday/Friday update schedule.

• To show Americans on a state/county level about the potential risk of where they are, the Harvard Global Health Institute has put together a COVID Risk Levels Dashboard that depicts risk level by state and county using cases/100K people.

  • This dashboard differs from TAG’s own Risk Matrix (discussed below) which considers other factors like test-positive rates, positive cases per capita, etc.  

• Starting next week, TAG’s COVID-19 newsletter will be three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). For more information, see our Recommendations for Industry.

• Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last several months, based on TAG's analysis of data from openFDA API, recalls have decreased between the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2020. The Acheson Group commends the food industry and its continued focus on food safety despite the pandemic. But what more can this data tell us about how recalls are reported, managed, and its impacts? Read more here.

• FDA has put out a warning to consumers and health care professionals about the potential for some hand sanitizer products containing methanol or wood alcohol! These ingredients are toxic! Read more from the FDA.