The U.S. is on pace to send 16,000 ventilators to 60 countries battling coronavirus by the end of July, the Daily Caller reports.
A Trump administration official told the Daily Caller that the effort is already underway.
The official said shipments of more than 1,200 ventilators have been sent to countries including El Salvador, Russia and the U.K.
The shipment is part of a summer initiative to produce 100,000 ventilators as the Trump administration focuses on the Strategic National Stockpile.
The official said the plan is to hone in on “shelf life management” and “surge capacity manufacturing.” By refocusing on the stockpile, the goal is to make the U.S. less vulnerable to future pandemics and “respond even faster” to aid requests from countries across the globe, the official said.
The official also said he doesn’t understand why the media is saying the U.S. hasn’t been a global leader in the fight against COVID-19.
“We were seeing a narrative that the U.S. didn’t take the lead, or that we failed to show international leadership in this pandemic,” the official said. “We were mystified by that given the amount of activity President Trump has overseen on this front.”
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