BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — According to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Massachusetts and Rhode Island will be joining in a multi-state effort to purchase personal protective equipment and medical gear during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Sunday, Gov. Cuomo held a joint virtual news conference with the governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware to announce that seven states have launched a "regional purchasing consortium" to help prevent price-gouging over PPE.
While Governors Baker and Raimondo were not in the news conference, Cuomo said Massachusetts and Rhode Island would also be joining the northeastern states' purchasing effort.
Gov. Cuomo said the states' efforts to secure their own PPE supply from China was "ineffective and inefficient," and he warned against relying on a foreign supply during a global health emergency.
“That we have to go to China for the PPE? I mean think about that. You couldn’t even get it in this nation,” said Cuomo. "That’s a national security issue to me... You can’t be dependent on China to have the basic equipment to save lives in the United States, that’s what this came down to.”
It's not the first time the northeastern states have helped each other in the effort to secure PPE during the coronavirus pandemic. In April, the same seven states agreed to coordinate their reopening after the pandemic.
Gov. Baker also sent a shipment of face masks from Boston to New York, and Cuomo returned the favor two weeks later by sending 400 ventilators to the Bay State.
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