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Procurement

COVID-19 Sourcing, Case Total Data by State Reveals Trends in Pandemic Procurement

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This week’s Thomas Index Report is sponsored by Toagosei America, an ISO-certified and RoHS compliant manufacturer of standard and custom high-performance instant adhesives.

Welcome to the Thomas Index Report for the week of September 21.         

As a quick reminder before we start today’s Index Report, you can find all of our COVID-19 resources and register your industrial business as a COVID-19 Response Supplier by visiting Thomasnet.com/COVID-19.

This week, we’re taking a closer look at state-specific industrial sourcing activity for COVID-19-related supplies.

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States was identified on January 20, 2020. As of last Monday, September 14, there were 6,538,000 total cases in the U.S.

Industrial sourcing for supplies to combat the novel coronavirus, such as PPE, air filtration equipment, ventilators, and cleaning solutions, has skyrocketed since the start of the year. At Thomas, our data shows sourcing professionals have conducted more than 388,000 supplier evaluations on the Thomasnet.com platform.

Diving deeper into COVID-19-related sourcing trends on a state-specific level, let’s start with one of the states that was hit hardest across the U.S.: New York, and more specifically, New York City. With a population of almost 8.4 million people spread over just 302 miles, it’s the most densely populated major city in the U.S. and became a major hotspot for the virus. As of last week, New York City has seen 242,000 cases while broader New York state has had 449,000 cases of COVID-19.

As you can see here from the number of new cases juxtaposed with the relative sourcing volume in New York, the state began sourcing for materials as it faced the mounting virus. With little time to prepare early by gathering critical supplies ahead of the virus’ impact, state officials and procurement professionals raced to source while in the midst of mounting case numbers.

In contrast, California was able to begin sourcing ahead of the major case spikes of COVID-19. For reference, California is home to 39.5 million people and has seen 763,000 cases of COVID-19 so far. You can see that relative sourcing volume grew significantly in March and into April while cases didn’t begin growing until late April and early May. Cases spiked over the summer as sourcing dwindled, indicating many key supplies had already been acquired by that point.

Finally, let’s take a look at Florida, a state that has been in the news lately for its rising case numbers as other states’ case totals began to dip. Taking a look at the data here, it’s clear from the relative sourcing volume figures that the state did source for critical COVID-19 supplies earlier this year, mainly in April and May, while its case numbers remained relatively low. However, when cases grew in late June through July and August, Florida’s sourcing spiked starkly in late July when the state realized its supplies were not enough to combat the surging virus cases.

Our data shows similarly interesting sourcing activity for the other 47 states, so our team developed a new eBook that further delves into the data and highlights the most interesting trends. To learn more, download the eBook for free today.

Image Credit: Thomas Index Report

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