Pentagon to Modify Hundreds of Contracts for COVID-19 Response

The Defense Department modified an existing government contract to purchase 8,000 ventilators from four vendors worth as much $84 million, with an initial shipment of 1,400 of the increasingly important ventilators due for delivery by early May. The announcement to purchase ventilators—already in need in COVID-19 hot spots like New York and Louisiana— for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to distribute was one of several major partnership efforts with the defense industrial base the Pentagon touted over the weekend. In total, the Defense Department “has processed several hundred contracts and orders related to COVID activities, including everything ranging from transportation, communication to medical supplies,” according to Department of Defense spokesperson Lt Col Mike Andrews.