PITTSBURGH (Newsradio 1020 KDKA) - Hundreds of thousands of cloth, reusable face masks will soon be in the hands of essential, front line workers in the fight against COVID-19.
Duquesne-based American Textile CEO Lance Ruttenberg says the discussion started six weeks ago with Dave Roger who heads the Hillman Foundation. "And that objective six weeks ago was to find a way to get everybody in Allegheny County who needed a mask, a mask."
Greentree-based Global Links knows something about supplying medical masks and other supplies to needy medical professionals here and around the world. Executive Director Angela Garcia says they realized early on there would not be enough masks to supply essential workers especially at non-profits.
"Our goal was to provide these masks to every social worker, hospice worker, home care worker in Allegheny and surrounding counties," said Garcia.
And that's what they are doing. Funded by the Hillman Foundation and more than a dozen local companies, the effort has raised $750,000 so far to initially make and distribute 360-thousand masks. Each worker gets two, one to wear while the other is in the wash.
Ruttenberg says the masks are cloth and the design was approved by the Allegheny County Health Department. They are produced at American Textile's plants in Duquesne and three other U.S. plants and at their manufacturing facility in El Salvadore. They have the capacity to produce up to 150-thousand masks a week. Some are sold to corporations that have placed orders.
Garcia says they have already started distribution to about a hundred non-profit agencies with another 150 agencies in waiting.
The effort is coordinated by the Allegheny Conference.
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