New York brought in hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of medical equipment during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that went unused and is now sitting in storage facilities without getting recommended maintenance while costing taxpayers storage expenses, according to a report released Friday by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office.

Auditors discovered the state paid $453 million to purchase nearly 250,000 items of durable medical equipment in 2020, including ventilators, X-ray machines, CPAP/BiPAP machines, oxygen tanks, pulse oximeters, oxygen concentrators and infusion pumps. Of the state’s total inventory, including equipment that was available pre-pandemic, only 324 items were distributed during the public health emergency, and only three items from the nearly 250,000 it

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