Acting as a clearinghouse for emergency medical supply acquisitions, the Department of Defense said Wednesday that a structure was now in place to make purchases in the domestic COVID-19 response, but no signed contracts could be confirmed.
“We are working very hard to make sure that we have a system to process all of this,” said Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord, who oversees a “joint acquisition task force” to manage demand signals from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services for medical supplies like ventilators, masks, swabs, and coronavirus test kits.
“We didn’t come this morning planning on giving numbers,” Lord said Friday at the Pentagon after being pressed by journalists as to how much funding was available, if any contracts were signed, or whether any production had started. “We have an enormous amount of disaggregated activity, great activity going on.”
Lord said Friday that FEMA was made the point agency and that joint staff Rear Adm. John Polowczyk has been detailed to FEMA to act as liaison.
“They have to give us the demand signals,” Lord said of FEMA and HHS. “Once we get clarity on the demand signals, we will execute.”
When asked why the DOD has not signed contracts or made purchases yet, Lord said a coordinated system had not been set up until recently.
“I know COVID has been here for several weeks, but this coordination at this level just started on Friday,” she said.
On March 17, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that up to 5 million N95 surgical masks and 2,000 ventilators would be turned over to HHS.
Lord said she will be ready to announce new contracts and provide specific numbers within “the next 2 or 3 days.”
“This is all very, very real-time,” she said. “Our first action was to make sure we have a system in place.”
