System that sanitizes 80,000 coronavirus masks a day coming to Massachusetts
A decontamination system that can clean up to 80,000 N95 masks a day will soon be online in Somerville — a “significant win” for health care workers and first responders struggling to gain access to crucial personal protective equipment in the fight against coronavirus.
The Critical Care Decontamination System designed by defense contractor Battelle will be housed at the now-defunct K-Mart in Assembly Row and is expected to begin sterilizing masks on Monday. It will be just the fourth site operating in the country, said Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders.
“We moved very quickly to secure Massachusetts as the fourth location,” Sudders said in a press conference Thursday, adding, “That’s a significant win for Massachusetts.”
The FDA-approved decontamination system — brought to Massachusetts through a partnership between Battelle, Partners HealthCare and the city of Somerville — will be able to clean an N95 respirator five to 10 times before the mask has to be discarded, Sudders said.
Cleaning will cost $3.25 per mask, but Sudders said Battelle has indicated the price could eventually go down. A new N95 mask regularly costs about $5 or $6, Sudders said.
The ability to decontaminate up to 80,000 masks per day “should cover all demand in Massachusetts over time,” Sudders said.
Dr. Paul Biddinger, Medical Director for Emergency Preparedness at Partners HealthCare, heralded the system as “a critically important step forward in our efforts to protect health care workers on the front lines.”
He added, “By sterilizing 80,000 masks per day, this region will have a greatly improved supply of N95 respirator masks, keeping our workforce safe, ultimately improving access to care for patients in need during this pandemic.”
Massachusetts officials have been scrambling to secure enough masks, gowns and other personal protective equipment for frontline workers before the projected surge in coronavirus cases over the next few weeks — even tapping the Kraft family’s Patriots plane to fly in 1 million masks from China after efforts to secure respirators through other supply chains were repeatedly stymied.
“We believe the combination of masks plus the ability to clean them buys us a buffer here where we should be able to service those folks in health care and public safety who need these for some extended period of time while some of the other stuff we’re working on on the supply chain side has a chance to come to fruition,” Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday.
But, he added, “I don’t believe we’ll ever have enough masks.”
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said Partners was able to bring the decontamination system to Massachusetts within a week of it being approved by the FDA.
“This is how it’s supposed to work in a crisis,” Curtatone said. “Everybody comes together to do big things.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2UE6Miw
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