VIRGINIA, USA — Hundreds of thousands of personal protective masks will be able to be decontaminated and put back into use every week around the Commonwealth with the addition of multiple critical care decontamination systems.
Gov. Ralph Northam recently announced that the units will be sent to Blacksburg, Newport News, and Chesterfield County.
Washington D.C. received a similar system in late April, which is now being shared by health care systems in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Northern Virginia.
The units, which are produced by Battelle, can each decontaminate up to 80,000 PPE items per day.
According to a release sent from the Office of Gov. Northam, each PPE mask can be recycled up to 20 times.
"Ever since the COVID-19 crisis began, we’ve been scrambling for personal protective equipment," said Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Moran. "We'll put the devices to use as soon as they’re up and running.”
With the need to wear a PPE mask likely lingering for at least the next few months, Moran told WUSA that it was critical for areas to stockpile items for people to stay healthy and safe.
"A new normal will require wearing a mask," he said. "The decontamination systems will allow more PPE for our eventual return to work, whether it’s your grocery store workers or your bus drivers and mass transit drivers.”
Moran added that hospitals are now using more PPE as a result of elective surgeries being able to once again be conducted.
Aside from the need for masks, he said being able to recycle the items would save the Commonwealth plenty of money.
According to Moran, the demand for PPE in the early stages of the spread of coronavirus in the US led to prices skyrocketing.
"Sometimes, the prices were $7, $8, $9 dollars a mask and up from what was in the cents before," he said.
Overall, Moran said having the Battelle decontamination systems would help Virginia stop the spread of the deadly disease.
"We don’t ever want to go through a PPE shortage again," he said. "The Battelle machines will be helpful and a real important component as we proceed ahead."
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