WASHINGTON, Aug 6 — The Trump administration has approved the purchase of more than US$100 million worth of new syringes to administer novel coronavirus vaccines when they are available, the US Department of Defense said in a press release.
“On August 4, the Department of Defense’s Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF), in support of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), awarded US$104 million in contracts to procure syringes and safety needles,” Sputnik news agency reported, quoting the release Wednesday.
The Defense Department explained that the move will make possible the nationwide administration of a Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccine as soon as it is available.
“The syringes and safety needles are critical to the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy, providing a total of 500 million safety syringes over a 12-month period, with more than 134 million of the total number delivered by the end of 2020,” the release said.
The six companies are Duopross Meditech Corporation (US$48 million), Cardinal Health Inc. (US$15 million), Gold Coast Medical Supply, LP (US$14 million), HTL STREFA (US$12 million), Quality Impact, Inc. (US$9 million), and Medline Industries, Inc. (US$6 million), the release added.
Source: BERNAMA