The U.S. Health and Human Services has a Pentagon stockpile of 2,000 ventilators ready to be deployed, but it is awaiting a decision on where those need to be assigned as the global coronavirus pandemic unfolds, according to reports.
The Pentagon offered those ventilators two weeks ago, but HHS has asked it to hold the first 1,000 ventilators stockpile for emergency deployment, according to the Pentagon's top logistics official Lt. Gen. Giovanni Tuck.
About 1.5 million of the Pentagon's stockpile of 5 million respirator masks have already been sent to HHS as personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and others, Tuck said.
Another 500,000 are going to be shipped this week, he added.
The Pentagon stockpile is ready to be sent at HHS's direction.
Also, the U.S. government has reported it has sent a lot of tests to states but the locales have not been using the tests they have been sent.
"We pushed a lot of tests out, but they're not being utilized," Dr. Deborah Birx said Tuesday during the coronavirus task force daily briefing.
Logistics have been difficult to smooth out with such a rapid deployment of healthcare supplies from the U.S. government down to the local level.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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