For instance, no one in the White House had devised a national strategy for obtaining and distributing the necessary supplies in the likely months-long fight against the pandemic that lies ahead, said three people with knowledge of the planning efforts. Those supply-planning efforts are only now underway.

“How is there not a national supply strategy yet?” asked one official involved in the effort, warning that the infamous shortage of coronavirus tests is set to be replicated with other shortages across the health system. “Hospitals are going to run out of basic commodities.”

The U.S. health system already has been plagued by shortages of test-kit chemicals, swabs and personal protective equipment for health workers, problems that are set to worsen as coronavirus case numbers rise and demand spikes. A government effort to obtain replacement test swabs required the U.S. military this week to airlift the specialized swabs from a factory located in coronavirus-stricken Italy.

Meanwhile, leaders in coronavirus hotspots like Seattle and New York City have effectively abandoned efforts to conduct broad testing on residents, instead urging them to stay home given the shortages — an acknowledgment that efforts to contain coronavirus have failed and they need to prioritize limited supplies. Local officials also are making unusual crowdsourcing appeals.

“We need companies to be creative to supply the crucial gear our healthcare workers need. NY will pay a premium and offer funding,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted on Friday. “If you have any of these unused supplies, please email [email protected].”

A sympathetic HHS staffer compared Cuomo’s plea to an Internet auction. “We’re facing a pandemic and the governor has to basically turn to eBay” for supplies, the staffer said.

Trump has worked to tamp down concerns about insufficient tests and supplies, saying that the flurry of federal, state and local efforts will be sufficient. “If California can get a mask sooner than we can get it for them, through all of the things we're able to do, we'll end up with a big over-supply,” the president said at a press conference on Saturday. “At some point this is going away.”

Spokespeople for the Trump administration defended its planning and coordination for the coronavirus outbreak. “We’ve been working since January with American manufacturers to prepare for responding to the outbreak and will continue to coordinate closely with private suppliers and our federal partners to ensure that resources are going where they’re needed,” an HHS spokesperson said.

The White House said that Trump’s leadership had sparked an "unprecedented collaboration" of government and private industry to curb the virus’ spread and ramp up the response. “The president has no higher priority than the health and safety of the American people and he is working around the clock to ensure we emerge from this crisis healthy, safe, and strong,” said spokesperson Judd Deere.

Inside the Trump administration, officials are continuing to sort out which teams are responsible for elements of coronavirus response, part of an ever-shifting patchwork of alliances and strategy, while working to manage the president’s unpredictable requests. Five officials said that Trump had grown appropriately concerned about the coronavirus outbreak after weeks of ignoring or playing down the threat, but that the administration is now rushing to solve issues that could have been addressed months ago, like obtaining the necessary supplies for the nation’s emergency stockpile.

Officials also are sniping over whether to institute even more aggressive actions to prevent coronavirus transmission. Health officials are calling for stricter measures that would keep more Americans at home, for longer, but policy officials warn that the resulting economic damage could cause other, long-lasting harms.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency this week took over responsibilities that had rested with the Health and Human Services department, the latest attempt to get a handle on the worsening outbreak.

“FEMA is now leading federal operations for #COVID19 on behalf of the White House,” administrator Pete Gaynor tweeted on Thursday night, as some projects like drive-through test sites shifted from the health department. The agency is also taking on a larger role handling supply and distribution issues, Gaynor and other officials said at Saturday’s briefing.

“The tendency is to think of FEMA as a disaster management agency,” said Craig Fugate, who ran FEMA during the Obama administration and said he had no knowledge of the Trump administration’s strategy. “It’s actually an all-hazards agency… and FEMA could add structure, planning, location to the coronavirus response,” with its regional offices and staff with crisis-management experience.

Some officials and outside advisers have questioned why FEMA had not been given more authority earlier in the response given the agency’s operational expertise in responding to disasters. Two individuals said that HHS Secretary Alex Azar had focused on protecting his leadership role, which has shrunk as Vice President Mike Pence took over the broader response and deputies whom Azar had originally sidelined — like Medicare chief Seema Verma and Surgeon General Jerome Adams — have emerged as key figures in White House strategy.

But a person familiar with HHS strategy said that Azar had pushed “weeks ago” for FEMA to be involved. The hold-up was instead linked to the federal response’s rotating leadership — as Pence abruptly took over for Azar at the end of February — and administration worries that states would be further confused over who was in charge.

“Secretary Azar and HHS have been and continue to be wholly supportive of a whole-of-government approach and in particular the important role FEMA is playing in coordinating the federal government’s response to COVID-19,” an HHS spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, a SWAT team of government officials and outside technocrats, backed by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, spent the week working around-the-clock to deliver the drive-through testing sites that Trump publicly promised, POLITICO first reported.

But the focus on drive-through testing also creates a new problem — draining limited supplies and other resources that could be used for high-priority patients in hospitals.

“It’s all short-term thinking right now,” said one official involved in the response.

“They’re desperate to expand testing — which is a good idea — but I don’t know whether the president, the vice president and others at the top understand the trade-offs,” added an adviser to the effort. “It feels like each of these problems is a mini-crisis being run by a mini-team in the government.”

Trump’s own involvement has caused additional headaches. Health department officials were confused on Wednesday after Trump announced that an “exciting FDA announcement” was on the way — particularly because Food and Drug Administration officials had yet to greenlight new drugs that Trump sought to fight the virus, The Wall Street Journal reported.

While Trump did hold a Thursday press conference with FDA Commissioner Steve Hahn and other officials, the event largely rehashed existing policies and work that had already been announced. Trump on Friday also repeatedly made claims about an unproven coronavirus treatment, prompting infectious-disease scientist Anthony Fauci to try and walk back the claims from the White House podium.