Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday he feels more confident now than ever in regard to Texas' ability to acquire personal protective equipment.
As the number of COVID-19 cases has risen across the U.S., states have faced shortages of PPE – the gloves, masks and gowns health care professionals use while treating patients to prevent themselves from contracting disease.
The state has distributed 1,676,510 masks, 209,856 face shields, 2.7 million gloves, 170,000 gowns and 7,500 coveralls to health care facilities across Texas in the past week, Abbott said during a news conference.
“The good news is those numbers are continuing to increase,” he said, adding that in the last 24 hours, the state has received 2.5 million masks and expects 3 million more later this week.
Watch the news conference below:
The governor said some of the supplies are coming in through the federal government, but most are the result of efforts by a team he assembled in March to acquire more PPE. While the federal government played an important role in the beginning stages of the crisis, especially in regard to drive-thru testing sites, he said, now the private sector is providing a “very robust response.”
“Now that we have an effective supply-chain organization working for the State of Texas, we’ve opened up a lot of new avenues through the private sector across the globe," Abbott said, "dramatically increasing our ability to acquire and disseminate PPE across the entire state."
As of Monday afternoon, Abbott said, 85,357 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Texas, 7,319 of whom have tested positive. There are 1,1,53 people who have been hospitalized, and 140 have died.