AMERICA is “likely” to suffer shortages of pharmaceutical drugs if the coronavirus pandemic rages on, warns a new federal intelligence report.

The Department of Homeland Security told law enforcement and government agencies of the looming crisis after worldwide infections hit the 10 million mark on Sunday.

Its report said that a drop in the supply of generic drugs would "most risk the health of low-income and unemployed Americans" already suffering as a result of the pandemic.

ABC News says the report points out the US is already hampered by shortages of more than 200 drugs and medical supplies.

The revelation comes four months after Republicans raised concerns about the security of America’s drug supply chain in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in China, where a significant portion of the ingredients used to make prescription drugs is manufactured.

The new Homeland Security report says: "Chinese factories that produce raw ingredients for common antibiotics closed for weeks as of March and India's lockdown extended until the end of May.

"France, Germany, and China have also considered re-imposing lockdown measures as Covid-19 cases have begun to re-emerge."

Dr Jay Bhatt, former medical chief at the American Hospital Association, told ABC News the report was "extremely concerning”.

“As infections and hospitalizations rise, our patients can't endure shortages from lifesaving medications.

“We have to apply our lessons from several months ago so we don't end up in dire straits,” the medic added.

Back in February, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley wrote to the US Food and Drug Administration that the outbreak highlighted “severe, longstanding, and unresolved vulnerabilities in our capacity to produce life-saving pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices for our own citizens".

He added: "This is unacceptable.”

Close to 90 per cent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) used in drugs for the US market were made overseas in 2018, according to the FDA.

About 14 per cent of the API for American drugs in that year was produced in China, it said.

Axios reported four months ago that around 150 prescription drugs were at risk of shortage if the outbreak worsened, citing a list of at risk drugs compiled by the FDA that included antibiotics generics, and some branded drugs.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who has been working on medical supply chain issues related to coronavirus, criticized the way in which too much medicine was produced overseas.

He told Fox News in February: “We have offshored far too much of our supply chain for the essential medicines we need.

“A lot of it’s in China. Some of it’s in India. Some of it’s in Europe. But we’ve got to get that back onshore."

The continued warnings coincide with a huge recent surge of coronavirus infections in the US, with big states like Texas, Arizona and Florida reporting thousands of new cases a day.

Those three governors have come under criticism for aggressively reopening their economies after virus lockdowns despite increasing infections in their states.

After confirmed daily infections in America hit an all-time daily high of 40,000 on Friday, June 26, Texas and Florida reversed course and closed down bars in their states again.

CNN reports that 32 states have seen surges in Covid-19 cases.

Professor Natasha Lindstaedt, department of government at the University of Essex in England, told the broadcaster that despite an effort to portray “optimism” over beating the killer bug, “the reality is that cases are spiking, and the US is doing worse when compared to other countries.”

The number of confirmed cases of the bug rose to more than 2.5 million in America on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally.

More then 125,000 Americans have died of Covid-19, the illness caused by the virus, the highest known death toll in the world.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said: "If we don't extinguish the outbreak, sooner or later, even [areas] that are doing well are going to be vulnerable to the spread.

"So we need to take that into account because we are all in it together, and the only way we're going to end it is by ending it together."

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