We are honored to be supporting Direct Relief’s work globally to fight COVID-19 and support medical workers and healthcare response teams with PPE and medical supplies. Below is an update taken directly from Direct Relief.

Taken from Direct Relief:

As everything is contracting, Direct Relief is expanding its coronavirus response efforts through the large-scale provision of PPE and other medical essentials.

As case totals continue to grow, Direct Relief’s activities are focused on four key areas:

  • Providing personal protective equipment (PPE) to safeguard health workers
  • Deploying medication needed for intensive care units to expand the capacity to care for ICU patients
  • Boosting support to safety-net facilities to address existing chronic gaps that are likely to grow
  • Collaborating with infectious disease epidemiologists, technology companies and public agencies to use aggregated mobility data to support the COVID-19 response.

Protecting Health Workers 

Staff with Ampla Health Care conduct Covid-19 testing at a drive-through site in Yuba City, California. The site was provided with protective gear from Direct Relief. (Photo by Renée C. Byer/ZUMA Wire)

Direct Relief maintains an emergency stockpile and, whenever possible, prepositions emergency caches of essentials that are likely to be needed immediately and can help avert or reduce the health effects of an emergency.

While responding to the COVID-19 outbreak in China, and seeing the rapid-onset shortages of PPE, treatment capacity, and unprecedented quarantines, Direct Relief reserved stocks and immediately began preparing for the expected arrival of the virus in the U.S. and other countries.

Upon the virus’ pandemic spread, Direct Relief has been sending shipments of protective gear on a near-daily basis to health facilities across the U.S. and the world.

Bolstering Critical Care Capacity 

Recognizing that a rapid demand spike for ICU medications was likely to result in the same type of stockouts of needed medications as had occurred with PPE in China, Direct Relief worked to get ahead of the crisis by developing an ICU medication estimator to build a stockpile of medications used to treat Covid-19.

A Direct Relief shipment coordinated by Wuhan United arrives in China. (Photo courtesy of Wuhan United)

Direct Relief receives substantial support from medical manufacturers and is channeling those resources to health facilities in Covid-19 hotspots, as well as sharing its assessment tools and inventory with public health agencies throughout the U.S. and globally.

In addition, Direct Relief is delivering equipment such as oxygen concentrators for COVID-19 patients who require oxygen supplementation during their recovery. Oxygen concentrators can free up ICU beds by allowing patients to recover after they’ve been discharged while still receiving breathing assistance.

For more updates on the BitGive COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund campaign and to make a donation, please visit the GiveTrack campaign page