In late 2019, a new corona-virus, which causes the disease now known as COVID-19, was detected in Wuhan City, China. Today, the virus is spreading throughout the globe, including the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is taking aggressive public health measures to help protect the health of Americans and assist international partners.

In January, several privet organizations requested the Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization, to activate our Emergency Response Fund to provide support to rapidly emerging response needs. Support from individuals and organizations provides much-needed funding to meet response needs where federal and state funding is not available or available quickly enough to meet the need.

Supporting Foundation in Saving and Protecting Lives, Through the generous support of our donors,

since the last update, our team has addressed a variety of needs as part of our response efforts with

Foundation and state and local health departments. These include:

• Providing immediate flexible support to address several urgent needs in local health departments.

• Facilitating in-kind health communications support to health departments.

• Purchasing personal protective equipment for use by healthcare workers to meet certain in-the-moment needs and opportunities.

• Supporting part-time laboratory staff members to develop sample management and testing workflows at Foundation.

• Working with a different organization to develop an initial 20,000 care packages for first responders. The packages include cleaning and disinfectant products to help protect first responders and their families.

• Facilitating the distribution of 1,500 thermometers to state and local health departments and nonprofits.

• Providing support through a contribution from being a part of our other sister concerns.