Feds distribute thousands of masks, other supplies seized from hoarders during coronavirus pandemic

The Justice Department and Department of Health and Human Services are distributing nearly 200,000 N95 respirator masks and other medical supplies to New York and New Jersey after confiscating them from individuals hoarding the materials.

Fox News has learned that the FBI discovered the supplies last week in New Jersey during an enforcement operation by the Justice Department’s COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force and alerted HHS.

Under the Defense Production Act, HHS ordered that the supplies be immediately given to the government.

In addition to the 192,000 N95 respirator masks, the FBI found 598,000 medical-grade gloves and 130,000 surgical masks, procedure masks, N100 masks, surgical gowns, disinfectant towels, particulate filters, bottles of hand sanitizer and bottles of spray disinfectant.

“Cracking down on the hoarding of vital supplies allows us to distribute this material to the heroic healthcare workers on the frontlines who are most in need,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. “Thanks to the quick work of the White House, the Department of Justice, and HHS, the seized resources were distributed in days to the doctors, nurses and first responders who need them.”

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