Letter to the Hon. Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States - Oregon Delegation Announces $500,000 in Initial CDC Funding for Oregon Coronavirus Response, Pushes for More Federal Help to Boost State's Response

Letter

Dear Mr. Vice President:

Thank you for the briefing you and members of your Coronavirus Taskforce provided to Congress on the administration's efforts to respond to the ongoing threat coronavirus (COVID-19) presents to the American public and the world. It is critical that states, local governments, and tribes remain in close contact as the outbreak evolves. We specifically write to support the request of Oregon's Governor Kate Brown for additional federal assistance and resources.

To date, Oregon has one confirmed case and two presumed positive cases of COVID-19 and over a hundred individuals who are under monitoring although they do not have symptoms but have been exposed through close contact with a confirmed case or from travel to mainland China. We have been tracking this situation closely and have been in constant communication with state health and education agencies, unions, hospitals and health systems, tribal leaders, superintendents, and other leaders. While the risk of contracting COVID-19 remains low, it is critical that Oregonians are advised on science-based precautions to protect themselves and their communities--this includes handwashing and hand hygiene, covering coughs and sneezes, staying home when ill, avoiding close contact with people who are sick, staying current on vaccinations, eating well, and exercising to help our bodies stay resilient.

Like other states with cases of COVID-19, we are concerned that Oregon does not have a sufficient supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) should COVID-19 spread more widely among the community, especially in Oregon's rural and frontier communities. While actions by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to increase access to respirators, including N95 masks, for health care personnel may help in the short term, we strongly urge you to release additional PPE from the federal government's strategic national stockpile, including 400,000 N-95 respirators, gowns, gloves, Tyvek suits, Biocell Ambulance Protection Systems (Biocell-APS), and 75 to100 ventilators.

We also request flexibility on testing criteria for COVID-19 as covered by FDA's Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to expedite the agency's permitted use of the CDC diagnostic panel and provide states with the ability to develop and order the materials needed to build and perform their own tests, or use CDC's template to scale up capacity to conduct tests and produce results more quickly to contain this outbreak.

Additionally, as a state with large, rural, and frontier regions we remain concerned about potential workforce shortages in small rural hospitals and other providers in areas that already struggle to maintain adequate staffing levels for provider and patient safety.

A significant amount of federal resources and funding will be needed to contain this outbreak, which will evolve as the outbreak evolves. Currently, Oregon estimates a financial need of $7 million to $10 million per month to support the additional resources needed for state, local, and tribal health--in addition to reimbursing the costs already incurred.

As you work to contain this outbreak, we request your continued partnership and urge you to work with state, local, and tribal governments to ensure our communities have the resources they need to protect public health.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your response.