MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence was highlighting the manufacturing of ventilators during a visit to battleground Wisconsin on Tuesday, a trip that Democrats used to blame the Trump administration for failing to deliver needed supplies to the state to fight the coronavirus.
President Donald Trump has had a “slow and erratic response” to the virus and failed to ramp up production of needed equipment to fight it, Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement Tuesday. He accused Pence of using the state as a “backdrop to a political photo opportunity.”
Wisconsin does not have the supplies it needs to combat the virus, said U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Reps. Gwen Moore and Mark Pocan, all Democrats, in a letter to Trump sent ahead of the Pence visit.
The criticism echoes concerns from Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and governors across the country about the lack of needed supplies. Pence, who has sought to assure states about federal help, was scheduled to visit a GE Healthcare manufacturing facility to highlight the production of ventilators.
The letter to Trump from the Democratic lawmakers said his administration has not provided information on when additional testing supplies will be provided from FEMA. Some needed supplies from the federal government have been diverted to private vendors rather than sent directly to state and local governments or health care providers, the Democrats said.
The Pence visit comes a day after Evers unveiled his state plan for reopening Wisconsin, which is modeled after federal guidelines issued by the Trump administration. One key component of the plan is ensuring there is enough testing available to determine the spread of the virus and then trace contacts of people who are infected.
Wisconsin has increased its testing capacity from two labs processing a few hundred tests a day to 36 labs processing more than 7,500 tests daily. The Evers plan sets a goal of doing 12,000 tests a day and about 85,000 a week.
Another key part of the plan for reopening Wisconsin is ensuring that hospitals have enough equipment, such as ventilators, to handle any surge in patients. So far, Wisconsin hospitals have not reported shortages of ventilators.
According to the Wisconsin Hospital Association, there were 303 COVID-19 patients on ventilators as of Monday and there were 1,233 ventilators available in the state.
To date, 230 people have diedin Wisconsin and nearly 4,500 have tested positive. There were 357 people hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Monday, a decline of 74 patients over the past seven days.
