(Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed frustration on Friday that the chemical reagents needed for coronavirus testing comes from China, and demand is high, so the federal government must be involved with getting the chemicals on behalf of the states.
Cuomo said that only 15 out of about 100 hospitals throughout the state are public hospitals. The rest are private hospitals.
“We have to get those private hospitals to work with government in a coordinated way, never happened before, extraordinarily difficult, but it was a phenomenal undertaking. You now have 300 laboratories and hospitals across the state that do virology testing. How do we get 300 private labs and hospitals to become one system statewide to do testing for COVID? And how do we get them more coordinated?” he said.
“This is something that has never been done before and is going to be a tremendous undertaking. Also to further complicate it, what they will tell you now, because we’ve been having the conversations, the labs if they can get the test, which they have to purchase from private sector companies, the tests require certain chemical reagents to operate, so you take a sample and then you mix it with other chemicals,” the governor said.
“They can’t get the chemicals that they need to mix to do the test. Who has the chemicals? No one has the chemicals, because everyone has been overrun with demand and the chemicals come out of where? China – where everything has come from over the past 40 days,” Cuomo said.
“Everything goes back to China, and China is now in a position where they are being asked globally for these reagent chemicals, and that is a piece of the equation that I can’t figure out, and that’s why the federal government has to be part of this approach and part of this answer,” he said.
Cuomo said that the federal government must be involved in testing by coordinating with China to get the reacting chemicals.
“I can do what I can do on the stateside, and I will, and I’m going to issue an executive order that says the Department of Health will be coordinating those private sector labs, which are private sector companies, but they are licensed by the state of New York. They are permeated by the state of New York, and we need them to step up and work together, but the federal government cannot wipe their hands of this and say the states are responsible for testing,” he said.
“We cannot do it. We cannot do it without federal help. I’m willing to do what I can do and more, but I’m telling you, I don’t do China relations. I don’t do international supply chain, and that’s where the federal government can help,” the governor said.
