CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia National Guard is collaborating with higher education institutions and business leaders to create and maintain face masks amid a shortage of supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.
Colleges and universities have been instrumental in the research and creation of new masks. Marshall University’s “The Mask Army” and West Virginia University’s Center for Inhalation Toxicology have been researching and developing personal protective equipment, while many community colleges have been creating N95 masks. The West Virginia masks have been approved to block coronavirus particles.
State Adjutant General James Hoyer on Monday thanked Charleston Area Medical Center and Mountain Health Trust for allowing the use of their machines for cleaning equipment.
“At CAMC, they’d have the capacity to decontaminate or sanitize up to 4,300 masks a day. If each of those masks can be used 20 times, that’s the equivalent of having 86,000 N95 masks,” he said.
A mask can be produced in under two hours. The West Virginia National Guard is exploring using cast molding as another production mode.
Hoyer noted the National Guard will begin developing swabs and ventilators parts.