Members of the Folman family from Murrysville, Pa., wear protective masks in their car as they look at a table with honey for sale at the Greensburg Farmers' Market opening day, Saturday, April 25, 2020, in Greensburg, Pa. Nearly a dozen vendors sold from tents in the parking lot of the Lynch Field Park for a farmers market set up for the patrons to stay in their cars and drive from one vendor to the next to follow safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keith Srakocic / AP Photo
Keith Srakocic / AP Photo
Members of the Folman family from Murrysville, Pa., wear protective masks in their car as they look at a table with honey for sale at the Greensburg Farmers' Market opening day, Saturday, April 25, 2020, in Greensburg, Pa. Nearly a dozen vendors sold from tents in the parking lot of the Lynch Field Park for a farmers market set up for the patrons to stay in their cars and drive from one vendor to the next to follow safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware are part of a consortium of seven Northeast states that will now work together to buy billions in critical supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including personal protective equipment and ventilators.
Rather than competing with each other for these supplies, working together will increase each state’s “purchasing power,” said Delaware Gov. John Carney, during a briefing Sunday hosted by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf also took part.
A Black doctor performs a free COVID-19 test in the parking lot of the West Philadelphia Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Christopher Norris for WHYY)
“This particular initiative … is so incredibly important for a small state like ours,” Carney said.
“If we’re going head-to-head with New York, we’re not going to get it,” the governor added. “If we’re along shoulder-to-shoulder with you and with Gov. Murphy and Gov. Wolf, we have a good chance of getting a better price and getting the product that we need.”
The governors said working together will make them more competitive in the international marketplace, and that they also plan to tap local manufacturers in those states.
Wolf said it will also allow the states involved to expand their testing capacity, which is critical to another initiative the consortium is working on: evaluating how and when to lift business restrictions and stay-at-home orders.
“We really need to work together to build the capacity to test or we’re not going to be able to give our citizens the confidence they need to go back to work,” he said. “They’re not going to have the confidence we need them to have to go back to school or go back to the store or go back to worship.”
WHYY is the leading public media station serving the Philadelphia region, including Delaware, South Jersey and Pennsylvania. This story originally appeared on WHYY.org.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
