The Biden administration has committed to making SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations available to all American adults by April 19, requiring distribution facilities being within five miles of 90% of the population. While the vaccination program is proceeding apace, there is still a significant need for medical supplies to diagnose and treat COVID-19.

Panjiva's analysis shows that U.S. imports of medical supplies previously identified by the U.S. International Trade Commission as necessary to treat the pandemic fell 11.4% sequentially in February versus January on a day-adjusted basis.

That was largely the result of a 23.3% slide in imports of diagnostic tests, with the lowest dollar value of imports since May 2020. There was also a 27.9% drop in imports of pharmaceuticals needed to treat the pandemic, likely excluding vaccines that are being produced domestically.

On a more positive note, imports of personal protective equipment, including masks and gloves, improved with a 2.4% sequential increase on a daily average basis after declining steadily since last May. There are still significant disruptions to supply chains in PPE, though, including restrictions on imports of rubber gloves linked to Top Glove Corp. Bhd., as discussed in Panjiva's research of March 31.

The drop in pharmaceutical imports has been driven in large part by a 34.9% slide in imports of vaccines and immunological products sequentially, although that likely reflects the increased use of domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines. A 28.4% drop in imports of antibiotics and a 5.4% dip in ENT products indicate a more widespread reduction in spending on pharmaceuticals.

The decline in shipments may add to the impetus for increased onshoring of manufacturing processes ahead of the early June report from the critical supply chain review already in flight by the administration.

Christopher Rogers is a senior researcher at Panjiva, which is a business line of S&P Global Market Intelligence, a division of S&P Global Inc. This content does not constitute investment advice, and the views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Links are current at the time of publication. S&P Global Market Intelligence is not responsible if those links are unavailable later.