Clinton County EMA to wind down PPE stockpile

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WILMINGTON — Clinton County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) will begin winding down the county’s personal protective equipment (PPE) cache on Tuesday due to decreased demand and the stabilization of commercial supply chains.

To date, Clinton County EMA has been able to support local needs with 47,700 masks (N95, KN95, and surgical), 3,900 handmade masks (by local volunteers), 5,100 face shields, 3,200 protective gowns, 406 boxes of gloves, and 116 individual bottles and 70 gallons of jugs of hand sanitizer.

This is in addition to decontamination and re-use of over 3,500 N95 medical masks through an agreement with Battelle and funded through a FEMA grant.

EMA was able to enable opening of the local business community in partnership with the Wilmington-Clinton County Chamber of Commerce by providing PPE.

The EMA recently provided materials to all county school districts to assist with back-to-school plans.

Starting in early September, EMA will begin pushing shares of the current stockpile to long-term care facilities and then expand to EMS, corrections, law enforcement, and firefighters shortly thereafter.

While the PPE cache is demobilizing, EMA will continue the N95 Mask Decontamination Program through Battelle on a weekly basis for those organizations that have contracted through the county.

This FDA (Food & Drug Administration) and Centers for Disease Control-approved process extends the life of certain N95 masks by a factor of 20, said Clinton County EMA Director Thomas Breckel.

Background

On March 16, 2020 the Clinton County Board of Commissioners passed a measure to focus county resources for the COVID-19 response. Shortly thereafter, EMA established a PPE cache on March 20 to supply first responders and long-term care facilities who were unable to obtain PPE at the time.

Volunteers Andrea Reagan and Sharon Breckel worked the phones to identify sources and donations for collection and redistribution to first responders and long-term care partners.

The early cache was supplemented with a shipment of 14 boxes from the Strategic National Stockpile, which contained badly needed N95 masks and gloves.

In early May, FEMA, the Ohio Department of Health, and Ohio EMA shipments began to normalize and provide PPE not available through other sources at the time.

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