Helpful Questions and Answers about Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Your Pets

You've learned  a lot about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and how to keep you and your family safe. But what about the other, furrier members of the family, your pets?  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration offers some questions and answers to help keep you, your family, and your pets safe during the pandemic.

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Oklahoma seeks to test 90,000 people, utilize 1,000 contact tracers to limit coronavirus spread

With Oklahoma set to begin its phased reopening Friday, the state aims to beef up COVID-19 testing and contact tracing throughout the month of May.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Daily Roundup April 30, 2020

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today continued to take action in the ongoing response effort to the COVID-19 pandemic: Today, the FDA included, under the ventilator emergency use authorization (EUA), a ventilator developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is tailored to treat patients with COVID-19. The ventilator was added to the list of authorized ventilators, ventilator tubing connectors and ventilator accessories under the ventilator EUA that was issued in response to concerns relating to insufficient supply and availability of FDA-cleared ventilators for use in health care settings to treat patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NASA VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) is intended to last three to four months and is specifically tailored for patients with COVID-19, by providing respiratory support for patients that are experiencing respiratory failure or insufficiency. The device is designed to ...

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Kudos to Texas Board of Pharmacy for now live streaming their meetings!!

Texas Board of Pharmacy Meeting Scheduled for May 5, 2020

Upcoming Board Meeting - May 5, 2020

The next Texas State Board of Pharmacy Board Meeting will be held in May. TSBP Board Meetings are open to the public, and interested parties are encouraged to attend.*

Details of the upcoming meeting are as follows:

Date: May 5, 2020

Time: 9:00 a.m. – Conclusion

Location: Zoom Meeting (meeting link and additional information will be posted on the agenda)

Agenda Materials: Posted here when available

Live Stream Information: TSBP is now live streaming meetings. See this page for details.

*PLEASE NOTE: Due to the nature of remote meetings, TSBP will not be able to provide continuing education credit for this meeting since attendance cannot be verified.

Kudos to Texas State Board of Pharmacy for keeping their members updated during COVID-19

The Texas State Board of Pharmacy continues to update our COVID-19 resources page regularly with important pharmacy-related regulatory updates, which you can find at www.pharmacy.texas.gov/coronavirus.

Temporary Rule Suspensions
Since the last newsletter writing, several more temporary rule suspensions have been granted by the Office of the Governor. Learn more about them here.

Emergency Adoptions & Procedures
TSBP has not adopted any new emergency rules since March 2020, but has issued guidance on emergency rule 291.30. The guidance can be found here.

Guidance Statements & Responses
Guidance statements can be found here. Some recent updates include COVID-19 waste disposal guidance from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for pharmacies that provide COVID-19 testing, CDC considerations for pharmacies during this time, and Texas DSHS information regarding pseudoephedrine purchases during the disaster declaration. Read more about this and other COVID-19-related guidance on our website here.

High E-Cig Use by U.S. Adults Who Just Quit Regular Cigarettes

Deaths from COVID-19 will soon outpace deaths from any flu since 1967. (Reuters)

FDA finds some ethanol hand sanitizers contain carcinogens or other contaminants and warns their manufacturers. (Reuters)

"On Saturday, April 25, 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an Executive Order (EO) granting NYS pharmacists the ability to order and perform CLIA-waived COVID-19 diagnostic and antibody testing. Previously, pharmacists were not authorized to perform"

https://www.newzjunky.com/kinney-drugs-responds-to-gov-cuomos-executive-order-allowing-pharmacists-to-perform-covid-19-tests/