Today we announced that @TheJusticeDept and @HHSGov partnered to distribute more than half a million medical supplies confiscated from price gougers to those on the frontline of the #COVID10 response in New York and New Jersey—including approximately 192,000 N95 respirator masks.
The @FBI discovered the supplies during an enforcement operation by DOJ's COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force on March 30 and alerted HHS. We used our authority under Defense Production Act to order that the supplies be immediately furnished to the US.
In addition to the N95 respirator masks, the supplies found included 598,000 medical grade gloves and 130,000 surgical masks, procedure masks, N100 masks, surgical gowns, disinfectant towels, particulate filters, bottles of hand sanitizer, and bottles of spray disinfectant.
HHS will pay the owner of the hoarded equipment pre-COVID-19 fair market value for the supplies and has begun distributing to meet the critical need for the supplies among healthcare workers in New York and New Jersey.
Specifically, after inspecting the supplies, HHS arranged for the delivery of the PPE to the New Jersey Department of Health, the New York State Department of Health and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Read more⬇️ hhs.gov/about/news/202…
