Primary care physician Dr. Alexander Salerno of Salerno Medical Associates in New Jersey resorted to buying medical equipment off the black market because of the shortages.
Salerno spent $17,000 for what would've normally been $2,500 worth of supplies, a 700% markup.
He hopes the supplies will last him to mid-April.
"You wire the money to a bank account," Salerno told Reuters on Thursday.
"And you show up to what looks like an abandoned warehouse.
You go in and you literally see a lot of stuff that's available but the costs are really high....And then before you know it, the garage door is closed and you're just there in a parking lot by yourself." He said he paid $20 for a single unit N95 mask, something that usually costs less than $2.
Salerno's medical offices in Newark and East Orange have tents set up outside to test and treat 50 to 100 patients daily for possible coronavirus.
We may not have hit the biggest wave of coronavirus cases, officials say.
