Defense Production Act contract to provide 39 million masks

By C. Todd Lopez, Defense.govApril 15, 2020

An Airman assigned to 407th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Flight, adjusts the straps to his N95 mask to begin a fit test at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, March 13, 2020. Airmen are provided a N95 mask that is serving in a specific mission...
An Airman assigned to 407th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Flight, adjusts the straps to his N95 mask to begin a fit test at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait, March 13, 2020. Airmen are provided a N95 mask that is serving in a specific mission set that may expose them to potential contact with anyone who may have the COVID-19 virus. (Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Alexandre Montes) VIEW ORIGINAL

WASHINGTON -- A Defense Department contract under the Defense Production Act will provide more than 39 million N95 respirator masks over the next 90 days to help in the fight against the coronavirus, Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper said.

"This will help ensure our government has the industrial capacity to meet the nation's needs," Esper said during a Pentagon news conference yesterday.

Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley host a Press Briefing on DOD support to COVID-19 response in the Pentagon Briefing Room April 14, 2020.
Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley host a Press Briefing on DOD support to COVID-19 response in the Pentagon Briefing Room April 14, 2020. (Photo Credit: Marvin Lynchard) VIEW ORIGINAL

Also, he said, a $415 million contract awarded by the Defense Logistics Agency is providing 60 systems that can decontaminate as many as 80,000 N95 respirator masks each day, allowing those masks to be reused.

"This will allow medical professionals to reuse masks up to 20 times and will reduce the nation's need for new inventory," Esper said. Six decontamination units have already been delivered to cities including New York; Columbus, Ohio; Boston; Chicago; and Tacoma, Washington, and the rest should be available by early May, he added.

An Airman receives a cloud of smoke to test the ventilation of his N95 mask issue at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait March 13, 2020. Airmen serving in specific mission sets with potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus are provided with an N95 mask.
An Airman receives a cloud of smoke to test the ventilation of his N95 mask issue at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait March 13, 2020. Airmen serving in specific mission sets with potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus are provided with an N95 mask. (Photo Credit: Tech. Sgt. Alex Montes) VIEW ORIGINAL

Combined, the 60 systems will allow for the decontamination of some 4.8 million masks each day once they're all in place. Distribution of those systems will be handled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, Esper said.

DOD has delivered 10 million of the new N95 masks to FEMA and HHS already, the secretary said, and is prepared to provide 10 million more.

The Defense Department has more than 50,000 service members from all services deployed in support of the fight against the coronavirus, Esper told reporters, with more than 4,000 of those being military doctors, nurses and medical professionals. Around 2,100 of those are now in New York City, including 300 who are in civilian hospitals to relieve civilian medical professionals.

Soldiers and Airmen from the Connecticut National Guard set up field hospital beds at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn., April 11, 2020. The site will contain over 600 beds and serve as potential hospital surge capacity for...
Soldiers and Airmen from the Connecticut National Guard set up field hospital beds at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn., April 11, 2020. The site will contain over 600 beds and serve as potential hospital surge capacity for patients recovering from COVID-19. (Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Steven Tucker) VIEW ORIGINAL

Experience has shown that local hospitals in cities such as New York do, in fact, have the number of beds needed to treat patients, but that medical professionals in those facilities have been overtaxed, Esper said, so that is where the U.S. military is focusing its assistance now.

"What's obviously become strained, stressed, are these hard-working nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists and everybody who's been at this now for weeks," he said. "They're getting burned out and worn down." They're also falling victim to the coronavirus themselves, he added.

"So that's where we've now pivoted in the last week or so — to move our doctors — and we're doing that now," Esper said. DOD is moving some doctors off the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort, which is docked in New York, and putting them into the New York City hospitals to provide relief, he said.

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class James Abbe preps a dialysis machine aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20). Comfort cares for trauma, emergency and urgent care patients without regard to their COVID-19...
U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class James Abbe preps a dialysis machine aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20). Comfort cares for trauma, emergency and urgent care patients without regard to their COVID-19 status. Comfort is working with Javits New York Medical Station as an integrated system to relieve the New York City medical system, in support of U.S. Northern Command's Defense Support of Civil Authorities as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo Credit: Petty Officer 2nd Class Sara Eshleman) VIEW ORIGINAL

Meanwhile, Esper said, the department is deploying 14 Army urban augmentation medical task forces to priority regions. Six of those task forces are in New York, three are in New Jersey, two are in Massachusetts, and Connecticut, Michigan and Pennsylvania have one each.

The Navy, he said, now has fully established expeditionary medic medical facilities in New Orleans and Dallas, while the Army Corps of Engineers is constructing 25 alternate care facilities around the nation that are expected to make available an additional 15,500 beds in cities such as New York, Detroit and Chicago. Construction of a 450-bed medical facility in Miami also is being discussed, Esper said.

Related links

U.S. Army Guidance on COVID-19

Army.mil: Worldwide News

Defense.gov