On July 2, the Department of Health and Human Services posted an “Extension of Designation of Scarce Materials or Threatened Materials Subject to COVID-19 Hoarding Prevention Measures; Extension of Effective Date with Modifications”. This notice marks the fifth renewal and modification of the original order, which was originally issued on March 23, 2020 as executive order 13910.
The order delegated authority to HHS to determine what goods and materials were vitally important to the response to the spread of COVID-19 and to take measure to prevent and punish hoarding. The list originally extended to over 40 categories of materials, including N-95 masks, hospital gowns, ventilators, and other scarce materials.
Over time, the contents of the list have fluctuated and have been reduced to 4 categories: Hospital gowns which are used as part of personal protective equipment for hospitals, testing facilities, nursing homes, and vaccination sites; laboratory reagents and materials used for isolation of viral genetic material and testing, such as transport media, collection swabs, test kits and reagents specific to those kits, and consumables such as plastic pipette tips and plastic tubes, which are used for testing and for vaccination; drug products currently recommended by the National Institutes of Health COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel; and syringes and hypodermic needles.
The new extension lasts through November 15. According to the underlying order, the president delegated to HHS the “authority to prescribe conditions with respect to the accumulation of such resources, and to designate any material as a scarce material, or as a material the supply of which would be threatened by persons accumulating the material either in excess of reasonable demands of business, personal, or home consumption, or for the purpose of resale at prices in excess of prevailing market prices.”
