HHS Secretary Azar Issues Remarks at Project Air Bridge Visit

DALLAS, Texas, July 29 -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued the following remarks on June 28 by Secretary Alex M. Azar II at the Project Air Bridge visit:

Tim Wertner, for welcoming us here, and thank you to everyone at FedEx for playing a critical role in getting supplies to the frontlines of our coronavirus response. And thank you to Steve Adams and the team with the Strategic National Stockpile, who rapidly deployed supplies like those provided through Project Airbridge to states during this pandemic.

Before I get into the topic of today's event, I want to note that we are closely monitoring the situation on the Texas coast with the response to Hurricane Hanna, which became a tropical depression after landfall.

We've been preparing throughout this spring and summer for the unique challenges presented by the combination of hurricane season and COVID-19, and HHS and FEMA have been in regular communication with the state of Texas about any needed assistance.

Today's event here in Dallas represents a key theme of the Trump Administration's coronavirus response: our close partnership with states and with private-sector partners.

From the beginning of the pandemic, there was simply no way that our heroic frontline healthcare workers were going to get the personal protective equipment they needed without close cooperation with states to determine needs and then partnering with the private sector to deliver supplies.

First, that took the form of FEMA and HHS's Project Airbridge, which has coordinated the delivery of more than 9 million N95 respirators and more than 49 million surgical masks and other PPE to Texas alone, including 17 Project Airbridge flights through DFW.

Now, as we move to the next phase of the response, we are modernizing our Strategic National Stockpile, so that we can have visibility into PPE needs all across the healthcare system in a way that the federal government never has before.

We know that many hospitals have now built up 60 to 90 days of PPE supply. A revamped Strategic National Stockpile will enable us to provide a more robust and flexible way to backstop this work, tracking potential shortages and meeting needs for all kinds of supplies as new spikes in the virus emerge.

Developing that capability in just a few short months is an incredible achievement, which should make our SNS team and our state and private-sector partners very proud.

Delivering PPE is just one piece of the work we have done to help states like Texas respond to surges in the virus.

We've also delivered testing supplies, provided data expertise, and shipped therapeutics that are already saving lives.

The federal government, states, and the private sector all have a role to play in defeating the virus, and so does each individual American.

Everyone can play their part in protecting themselves and their communities by following three simple, science-based recommendations: Keep a physical distance from others, wear a mask, and practice good hand hygiene, including hand washing.

These recommendations, like all of our work, are guided by data and by doctors.

Working with our medical experts and community leaders, we are fighting back against surges in the virus and determining where and when it is responsible to proceed with reopening, so that, in time, everyone can resume their lives safely and sensibly.