From iafc.org:
The IAFC is continuing to monitor the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) inside the United States. As your agency likely is preparing to care for potential patients and protect firefighters and EMS personnel from exposures, please know that the IAFC stands with you and is ready to help.
In addition to continuously updating the Coronavirus resources page, the IAFC Coronavirus Task Force held their first meeting last week. Over the next few months, the Task Force will be monitoring COVID-19 and developing recommendations for ways that fire departments can protect their members while continuing to serve their communities.
This Task Force is pleased to release a e-guidebook (PDF)] to assist fire chiefs in planning for and responding to COVID-19 issues. The guidance document contains specific recommendations related to developing dispatch protocols, selecting and using appropriate personal protective equipment, implementing decontamination procedures, and creating pre-plans for quarantining and isolating first responders. In the coming weeks, the Task Force also plans to continue updating these recommendations as well as analyze issues related to medical surge capacity, medical supply chain, drug shortages, and other issues.
In addition to reviewing the Task Force’s summaries, the IAFC strongly encourages all chiefs to closely follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for EMS system and public safety answering points and other resources posted on the IAFC Coronavirus resources page.
As always, please remind your personnel to stay safe and err on the side of caution when caring for known or suspected COVID-19 patients.
Here is a link to the map of Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) which is updated throughout the day.
