WISCONSIN — Governor Tony Evers wrote a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) asking for fewer restrictions when getting PPE from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In newly updated guidance from FEMA, restrictions were placed on PPE acquisition. In his letter, Evers said the new guidance "restricts funding for PPE only to healthcare workers, patients, first responders, and those performing otherwise eligible emergency work; allows the purchase of only a 60-day supply; and limits disinfection costs to facilities where emergency work is being performed."
Evers claims that the new guidance would force him and the state of Wisconsin to revise their disaster plan in the middle of the pandemic.
"The state will need to either divert resources from other response programs to pay for them or forgo them altogether. Either way, the state’s COVID-19 response efforts will suffer at a critical time," Evers wrote.
Evers urged FEMA to reconsider the changes and asked them to revert back to their original guidance released back in March.
That initial guidance, according to Evers, further assured state governments that these measures would “ensure that resource constraints do not inhibit efforts to respond to this unprecedented disaster.”
You can find Evers; full letter below.