Here are the week by week COVID-19 case statistics for this month from the Centers for Disease Control:
| 3-6-20 | 3-13-20 | 3-20-20 | 3-27-20 | |
| Travel | 36 | 138 | 290 | 712 |
| Person to Person | 18 | 129 | 310 | 1326 |
| Cause under invest. | 110 | 1362 | 9842 | 83,318 |
| Total Cases | 164 | 1629 | 10,442 | 85,356 |
| Total Deaths | 150 | 1246 | ||
| Deaths over cases | 1.44% | 1.46% |
Quite a spike. In the FEHBlog’s view, it will be interesting to see whether there is any leveling off in the case count increase.
The CDC’s latest Fluline reports “that [according to CDC estimates] so far this season there have been at least 39 million flu illnesses, 400,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths from flu.” That represents a deaths over cases percentage of .06%.
With regard to COVID related guidance from that is relevant to FEHBP carriers and others
- The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Rights has gathered together all of its COVID-19 emergency guidance on the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules in one website.
- The Department of Labor and the IRS have issued additional guidance on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act’s paid sick leave mandate and expanded FMLA leave.
- The National Committee for Quality Assurance has assembled its COVID-19 emergency guidance here.
As previously mentioned the Office of Personnel Management has taken the same consolidated approach with its online COVID-19 emergency guidance which generally is directed at federal agencies.