Missouri continues to work on its supply of personal protective equipment to help battle COVID-19. State Department of Public Safety Director Sandy Karsten tells Missourinet the pricing for the gear is better than it used to be.
“For example, the N95 masks that you’ve heard a lot of people talk about – in March and April timeframe, those were around $4 to $5 per mask. Now we’re getting them for 67 cents on up to 73 cents. It just varies,” she says.
The equipment, like masks, face shields, gowns and gloves, are used by Missouri’s first responders and healthcare workers.
The state gets daily shipments of the items – allowing Missouri to make regular deliveries to first responders and healthcare workers and to build up a stockpile.
“I feel better with where we are now compared to where we were earlier – at the beginning of this COVID, but we still have got a long way to go to get to the levels we need to have a sustained supply of PPE. I feel better but I wouldn’t say good yet,” Karsten says.
The Office of Administration will soon take over that equipment responsibility from the State Emergency Management Agency.
“It looks like we are going to be positioning ourselves for the next year to year and a half,” she says.
Karsten was at a State Emergency Management Agency warehouse this week in Jefferson City when 400,000 masks were being loaded and delivered to schools in St. Louis and St. Charles Counties.
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