Health officials warn of possible effects on U.S. virus testing supply without more aid: NYT

NEW YORK, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Federal health officials have warned about potentially dire consequences to the U.S. coronavirus testing supply later this year if lawmakers do not replenish funding for the federal pandemic response, leaving the nation at risk of shortages and more dependent on foreign manufacturers, The New York Times (NYT) reported last week.

Ashish K. Jha, the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator, described at a White House briefing the consequences of repurposing Department of Health and Human Services funds meant for manufacturing capacity and the tests themselves in order to pay for more vaccines and COVID-19 treatments, according to the report.

"That move came after talks in Congress about funding more of the federal pandemic response stalled, leaving federal health officials with nowhere else to look to fund other critical parts of the response," said the report, noting that the White House has asked Congress for 22.5 billion U.S. dollars in emergency pandemic aid, but Republicans called for less than half that figure, 10 billion dollars.

"We're looking under every couch cushion to see what is available," Dawn O'Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said at the same briefing, adding that the administration could not guarantee that it would be able to purchase more vaccine doses for later in the year.

"The U.S. government put in a lot of effort and resources into building up that domestic manufacturing," said Jha. "And what we're seeing is, day by day, week by week, that beginning to go away."