Gov. Jared Polis pleads with feds, Pence for more PPE and ventilators to address coronavirus
A day after addressing Colorado’s desperate need for more medical supplies, Gov. Jared Polis released a letter he sent to Vice President Mike Pence over the weekend requesting additional resources be sent to the state to fight the novel coronavirus.
“We are facing a crisis-level shortage of these essential supplies to protect our health care workers and first responders,” Polis wrote in the letter dated March 28, shared Thursday in a news release. “Colorado’s COVID-19 death rate is rising faster than any other state right now; the pandemic is spreading so fast that lags in testing are masking the true conditions experienced by Coloradans across the state.”
In the letter, Polis requested:
- 10,000 ventilators, and associated equipment and pharmaceuticals
- 2 million N95 masks
- 4.46 million surgical masks
- 720,000 gowns
- 880,000 face shields
- 4.3 million pairs of gloves
“I am asking that you increase the ventilators and PPE that is being sent to Colorado for this critical moment, to help us safely cross the bridge ahead of us until we can start to reap the benefits of our other unprecedented procurement and manufacturing efforts,” the governor wrote.
At least 80 people have died of complications related to COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory illness caused by the virus. Another 620 have been hospitalized and 3,342 people confirmed with the illness.
Colorado is not alone in its medical supply shortage — with states across the country bypassing the federal government and going straight to other countries or private companies to fill their needs. In a news conference Wednesday, Polis said Colorado has gone to China for millions of masks and gloves, hundreds of thousands of gowns, tens of thousands of face shields and hundreds of ventilators as the federal government works to increase domestic production.
This go-at-it-alone attitude has become necessary for states as the federal stockpile nears empty. In one instance, Massachusetts this week deployed the New England Patriots team plane to China to pick up more than 1 million masks it bought from a private supplier.
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