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USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION
A nurse dons a face shield at a COVID-19 testing facility in Suffern, New York, in July. Back in the spring, New York was the focus of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. Aggressive measures helped drop the state’s infection rate to among the lowest in the country, but fall brought fears of another wave. PETER CARR/THE JOURNAL NEWS
Supply chains stretch and strain The Northeast’s experience, then and now, shows just how many weak links there are David Robinson
| USA TODAY Network
In early April, New York’s governor warned that the state had only enough available ventilators to last six days, as waves of seriously ill coronavirus patients fl ooded hospitals. Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined a plan to move lifesaving breathing machines from upstate communities with limited outbreaks to aid New York City-area hospitals hit hardest by the virus. “I’m not going to let people die because we didn’t redistribute ventilators,” Cuomo said, announcing that the National Guard would be deployed to take the ventilators. The episode ignited a fi restorm and embodied the nation’s chaotic response to dire shortages of medical supplies. New York narrowly avoided running
out of ventilators after getting an 11thhour shipment of 1,000 devices from China, but the consequences of U.S. over-reliance on overseas manufacturing had been laid bare. Shortages of personal protective equipment, which is also often made in China, underscored the problem and contributed to the coronavirus death tolls in New York and New Jersey of about 32,800 and 15,900, respectively, the highest nationally. After all the death and suff ering, the Northeast had the lowest infection rates in the country by the time fall arrived, but it is bracing for a second surge. Surging COVID-19 infection rates in See SUPPLY, Page 22