Coronavirus Roundup: Federal Agencies Are Not Tracking Outbreaks in Schools; Government Now Has Vast Ventilator Surplus

The U.S. Census Bureau published a survey on Tuesday finding that working mothers are bearing “the brunt” of childcare and homeschooling during the pandemic. During the first three months of the pandemic, the percentage of mothers (ages 25 to 44) not working due to childcare issues increased from 26.2% to 30.9%, compared to a slight decrease from 11.9% to 11.6% for men. Also, working women in homes with children reported having anxiety and worries at higher rates than men. Here are some other recent headlines you might have missed. 

The Health and Human Services Department announced on Wednesday it is expanding access for children to receive vaccines to keep up their immunity for preventable diseases during the pandemic. “The Trump administration has worked to allow pharmacists—alongside all of America’s heroic health care workers—to practice at the top of their license, empowering the public with more options to protect their health and well-being,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

The federal government is not tracking coronavirus outbreaks in schools, leaving it up to local officials instead to decide what they want to make public. This comes as some schools have already gone back to in-person learning and students and teachers have been infected. Researchers and experts are worried the lack of data collection at the federal level could hinder tracking how the virus is spreading and determining what safety precautions schools need to be taking, NBC News reported on Tuesday. 

Following the switch last month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to a private contractor through HHS maintaining coronavirus data, the Trump administration is considering “an even broader overhaul” to automate public health data collection, Politico reported on Wednesday. Critics question the timing of the initiative as HHS is still adjusting to the new system. 

The National Institutes of Health is pressing a nonprofit in New York to hand over information regarding its partner, the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, to which the administration suspended a research grant in April due to unsubstantiated claims the coronavirus originated there. In a letter dated July 8, NIH outlined what EcoHealth Alliance must provide in order to resume receiving funding, which Harold Varmus, a former NIH director, called “outrageous,” and other experts said is beyond the scope of normal grant reviews, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Six passport agencies and centers are in phase two of reopening and 13 are in phase one, the State Department said on Monday. Since July 23, the department has been increasingly making progress on reducing its backlog of passport applications and issuances. 

Ten states (five Republican and five Democratic), along with the Rockefeller Foundation, a private philanthropic organization, are working together to purchase millions of rapid response coronavirus tests due to the Trump administration’s lack of a national strategy. “While the federal government is investing in a handful of new companies with plans to improve capacity into next year, the White House has exasperated health officials by refusing to invoke the Defense Production Act to seize manufacturing capacity...similar to prior moves to accelerate ventilator construction,” Politico reported. “It has also refrained from pouring federal funds into testing at the same aggressive rate as it’s done in pursuit of a coronavirus vaccine.” The White House disputed the reporting and Health and Human Services Department spokesperson Mia Heck told Politico that the administration’s strategy “enabled this state compact to happen, as it should be each state’s priority to implement point-of-care testing.”

On Tuesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency updated its list of critical infrastructure workers due to the changing dynamics of the ongoing pandemic. These are employees who are considered “essential” to maintaining services and operations needed on a daily basis. “Reflecting the ongoing dialogue and considerations as communities determine whether to re-open schools this fall, the list now includes workers who teach and support our children either in-person or through virtual learning,” said the agency. “The guidance does not make judgment on whether schools should re-open, as those decisions are in the purview of state and local officials.”

The Wall Street Journal published a deep dive on Tuesday about the nation’s “lost” 21 days of coronavirus testing in February due to issues with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s test, which was the only federally authorized one. “The lost days stemmed in part from missteps by U.S. health leaders. They dismissed other solutions that could have led to national testing, underestimated the risk of the virus spreading and were overly confident they could fix the problem,” said the report. “No one suggests America could have avoided the pandemic. But the 21-day delay prevented testing that might have limited the spread and alerted cities like New York and Seattle to shut down sooner, many public-health authorities say.” 

After entering into deals with large manufacturers using the Defense Production Act to produce ventilators earlier in the pandemic, the federal government now has a vast surplus that it will put in the strategic national stockpile. “During the months it took for companies to develop their supply chains, test prototypes and train workers to build them, the approach to treating COVID-19 changed,” which was “faster than companies can adapt,” The Washington Post reported. “For Ford, which got the order to supply the largest quantity of ventilators to the federal stockpile, production and delivery were delayed, further throwing it out of sync with the pandemic needs.”

Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia tweeted on Tuesday that Arizona is the first state to make payments under the president’s executive order from August 8 for unemployment benefits. The order requires states to pay 25% of the $400 payments. According to an Associated Press survey, as of Monday, 18 states committed to the program, 30 are still undecided and two rejected it. 

Upcoming: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany will hold a briefing at 1 p.m. 

Help us understand the situation better. Are you a federal employee, contractor or military member with information, concerns, etc. about how your agency is handling the coronavirus? Email us at newstips@govexec.com.