N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo Calls for Federal Coordination of Supply Chain for COVID-19 Tests
[Ensure you have all the info you need in these unprecedented times. Subscribe now.]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for federal coordination of the supply chain to make COVID-19 testing more widely accessible to states.
Cuomo updated constituents on the coronavirus and discussed the journey a COVID-19 test kit makes at a press conference April 18. According to Cuomo, about 30 large private manufacturers make equipment to test for the virus. Those manufacturers sell their machines to smaller local labs, some 300 of which are located in New York. For a local lab to perform a test, it needs to use equipment and reagents produced by one of the larger manufacturers. (Different manufacturers’ tests require different sets of reagents, which are chemicals used for analysis.)
State representatives called the 50 top-producing labs in New York to ask what they needed to double their testing capacity, and most said they needed more reagents from their manufacturer. However, the manufacturers report they can’t provide more reagents because either the chemicals come from another country or the federal government is directing them where to distribute their product.
“That’s the logjam that we are in,” Cuomo said. “They bought the machine [and] they have the test, but they need the reagents to do a higher volume of tests. We need two things from the federal government. We need help on that supply chain, especially when it becomes international, and we need coordination and basic partnership.”
New York has been particularly hard-pressed by the coronavirus. According to the New York State Department of Health, there were 247,512 positive cases of COVID-19 in the state as of April 19. Cuomo said there were about 2,000 new coronavirus-related hospitalizations in New York on April 17.
Besides asking for supply chain coordination, Cuomo called on the federal government for funding. He emphasized the importance of the National Governors Association’s recent bipartisan request for Congress to allocate $500 billion in immediate financial assistance to states. Congress approved a $2.2 trillion stimulus package in late March that did not contain funding to bolster state revenue.
“I get we have to fund airlines and small businesses,” Cuomo said. “But you also have to fund state governments. We’re not an airline, so you don’t really have an issue of ‘Should government really be giving tax dollars to this private entity?’ When you fund a state government, you just are funding a state government to perform the functions you want us to perform, which is the reopening function.”
Cuomo recently extended his New York State on Pause initiative, meaning schools and nonessential businesses will remain closed through May 15. He said the process of reopening a state requires considering the difficult balance of what can be reopened, and how fast, without raising the infection rate and sending swarms of people to hospitals.
“The tension is, when you start to open businesses, when you start to have gatherings, you put people on a bus, you put people on a subway [and] you put people in a retail store, then you’re going to see more infections,” Cuomo said. “You’re going to see that infection rate rise.”
Want more news? Listen to today's daily briefing:
