The Federal Emergency Management Agency and HHS have created a supply chain stabilization task force to address the limited supply of critical protective equipment across the country.
The task force will focus on:
- Preservation, to limit unnecessary use of personal protective equipment and other supplies and will develop techniques to clean and recycle products
- Acceleration of industrial manufacturing to help meet demand
- Expansion. Manufacturers are enhancing production capacity with more machinery and are sometimes retooling assembly lines to produce new products as needed
- Allocation of critical resources. The task force will make allocation decisions based on data, the agencies said.
The task force was created to respond to requests from states, tribes and territories for equipment to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and will work with FEMA's National Response Coordination Center to focus on COVID-19 hot spots as they arise.
Read the full news release here.