Three localities in Virginia — including Newport News — will get access to new decontamination stations that will help medical personnel and first responders deal with the ongoing shortage of personal protective equipment as they continue to fight the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Saturday.
The stations, manufactured by medical technology company Battelle, use hydrogen peroxide vapor to sterilize N95 masks. The masks can handle up to 20 such decontamination cycles without degrading the performance of the mask’s filter, the governor’s announcement said.
Each unit can sterilize 80,000 units of PPE per day.
Newport News, Blacksburg and Chesterfield County will get the three FEMA has promised Virginia. Northam’s announcement said the stations would be in place and operational within a week.
Newport News’ will be installed at a warehouse at the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, according to the announcement. The stations are coming to Virginia free of charge via FEMA.
Across the nation, access to personal protective equipment has been a huge problem for those responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Supplies are so scarce that the federal government has seized shipments to some states, which has in turn lead to some governors secreting their own deliveries away to secure locations and keeping them under lock and key.
It’s also spurred amateur maskmakers around the country to fire up sewing machines and 3D printers to try to help chip away at the shortage.
Ryan Murphy, 757-739-8582, ryan.murphy@pilotonline.com
