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Ohio Gets Medical Supplies From Feds, But Says They Won't Be Enough

By Karen Kasler

Published April 1, 2020 at 11:10 PM EDT

Dr. Amy Acton points to a graph on a chart showing Ohio's levels of most needed medical equipment, such as masks, gowns and thermometers at a press conference on March 30, 2020. [Office of Gov. Mike DeWine] — Dr. Amy Acton points to a graph on a chart showing Ohio's levels of most needed medical equipment, such as masks, gowns and thermometers at a press conference on March 30, 2020.

Ohio got all it is likely to get from the National Strategic Stockpile of medical supplies – a plane dropped off gowns, gloves, coveralls, face shields, surgical masks and N95 masks in Columbus Tuesday.

But the state says it’s not enough for now or through the surge of COVID-19 patients that is expected in the near future.

Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton said after the shipment arrived that it "will not meet the immediate or future needs" of the state’s health care providers and first responders, and that fact reinforces the need to conserve that equipment.

Tuesdayis shipment included:

107,670 gowns

552 coveralls

493,575 gloves

131,808 face shields

672,100 surgical masks

271,450 N-95 masks

A few hours later at the daily coronavirus briefing, Acton said there needs to be a better way to allocate the National Strategic Stockpile and also to build up more supplies.

“This is a nightmare for all concerned. This isn’t a blame thing, but we have to lean into some solutions that are more wide and scaled," Acton said.

And Acton said there are hotspots now — such as New York City - but within two weeks other hotspots will develop simultaneously in Ohio and across the country. So now’ i the time to come up with a logical way to distribute resources, she said.

“Nobody wants to be sitting there with an idle ventilator while in another neighboring state, they need it that day. But unfortunately the way this pandemic is happening across our entire country, we need to think about the distribution of these resources in a very thoughtful way," Acton said.

After the delivery, a statement from President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign called it a “promise kept” and that Trump is “mobilizing the full force of the federal government to get health care workers the supplies they need”.

Two quite different views of the delivery of PPE to Ohio from the Strategic National Stockpile: @OHdeptofhealth says its supply won’t meet immediate or future needs, while Trump campaign release “PROMISE KEPT” to help front line health care workers pic.twitter.com/lPS0rxCTeb
— Karen Kasler (@karenkasler) April 1, 2020

Acton noted the Defense Production Act could be used to manufacture needed equipment. But so far Trump has not used the law to force companies to produce medical equipment such as ventilators.