The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is putting $34 million into the nation's healthcare systems to ensure providers and suppliers have what they need to fight back against coronavirus, and FEMA is making sure supplies go to where they are most needed, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said Thursday.
"FEMA has actually set up a system where they can see supplies and where they are throughout the entire United States," Verma said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "They are also bringing in supplies from overseas ... what they are trying to do is make sure that those that need the supplies have them. They've actually moved away from just sending supplies to the states, to actually send those supplies out to people on the front line."
FEMA is also working with Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, to track where the virus is moving, so it can match supplies up to where increases are occurring, said Verma.
Meanwhile, even though there has been some flattening in the coronavirus curve, that doesn't mean people should quit with social distancing and other measures to stop the spread of the disease, Verma said.
"I think that has to do with the great work that every American is doing to implement '30 days to slow the spread'...we need to continue to do those things so that we can get through this quicker," she said.
Meanwhile, it's too soon to identify a specific date when the economy will reopen, said Verma.
"May 1st, obviously we've hoped that would come, but I think it's too early to identify a specific date," she said. "The president has been very clear that he wants us to get through this as quickly as possible and we are starting to think about what types of things we would need to have in place in order to reopen. We are looking at the data as well. At the end of the day, we want to make data-driven decisions so that we know Americans can be safe."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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