EUGENE, Ore. — Since COVID-19 started spreading across the globe, healthcare workers have worried about running out of those protective N95 masks. There is some relief in sight.
"The goal the federal government has committed to is providing one per state," said Andrew Phelps, Director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.
Phelps says in a matter of days, on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, a system will be in place to decontaminate N95 masks.
"We expect to move 80 to 85,000 masks through a day and that's a large number considering this is going to be a seven day a week operation," said Phelps.
The system is made up of more than a half dozen shipping containers. The masks are placed inside the containers and a hydrogen peroxide vapor is pumped through. The gas kills the germs on the masks.
"We can decontaminate them up to 20 times so you get quite a few uses out of these masks which is important given how limited our supply is of these N95s," said Phelps.
The decontamination system was dreamed up by a couple in Ohio. The wife, a family doctor, told her husband she was concerned about a mask shortage at her hospital. The husband works at Battelle, a non-profit research institute that tests for dangerous pathogens, and recalled an old study that showed masks could be cleaned and reused.
The couple started drawing schematics. Battelle engineers got to work. Testing and approval from the FDA followed.
"I still don't think it has fully sunk in," said Dr. Laurie Hommema. "It's overwhelming to think it started with an after-dinner conversation and drawing it out on a piece of paper to see if it was something feasible."
These decontamination units from Battelle are firing up in states across the country, including Washington and Oregon. As Phelps points out, this aligns with Oregon Governor Kate Brown's plan to re-open the state.
"Having the system to decontaminate masks and make more masks available for a longer period is an important piece of the re-opening strategy," he said.
The federal government is footing the bill for the decontamination unit and handling the logistics of moving the N95 masks between the decontamination unit in Eugene and hospitals and healthcare facilities across Oregon.