{"id":65051,"date":"2020-04-06T10:18:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T16:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-efforts-to-scale-up-ppe-production-tangled-in-federal-red-tape\/"},"modified":"2020-04-06T16:18:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T16:18:06","slug":"colorados-efforts-to-scale-up-ppe-production-tangled-in-federal-red-tape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorados-efforts-to-scale-up-ppe-production-tangled-in-federal-red-tape\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s efforts to scale up PPE production tangled in federal red tape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

In a matter of weeks, hundreds of manufacturers across Colorado have suspended normal production of things like snowboards, outdoor gear and clothing to make personal protective equipment for health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re making masks and face shields and parts for ventilators. But federal red tape and limited capacity to test and certify the new products for medical use in Colorado have left some manufacturers in limbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not unusual for any of us to get 100 emails in an hour,\u201d said Noel Ginsburg, chairman of the state\u2019s manufacturing and sourcing task force. \u201cWe can\u2019t test everything, so we will prioritize those things that are going to go into the health care system first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of positives going on for sure,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s a complex system, and we have to set honest expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado is in desperate need of N95 medical-grade masks<\/a> and other personal protective equipment, including gloves and medical gowns. Last week, Colorado received 2 million masks from China, and will be receiving 100,000 more from Taiwan this week. But gear is still in short supply \u2013 so much so that some health care providers have asked for help figuring out how to 3D print their own face shields. As of Sunday afternoon, there are nearly 5,000 people who have tested positive for the virus in Colorado, and at least 140 have died.<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers
Volunteers use 3D printers to produce face shields as a part of Colorado\u2019s Make4Covid initiative at one of the Pikes Peak Library locations in Colorado Springs. Make4Covid is a Colorado-based remotely-collaborative community of makers, designers, industry experts, and healthcare professionals working together to design and manufacture equipment for doctors, nurses, and first responders.<\/span>Make4Covid<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe are facing a crisis-level shortage of these essential supplies to protect our health care workers and first responders,\u201d Gov. Jared Polis wrote in a March 28 letter to Vice President Mike Pence, who\u2019s in charge of the U.S. coronavirus task force.<\/p>\n

The federal government has been slow to deliver the equipment Colorado has requested from the Strategic National Stockpile. According to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, the state has received only 11% of the 2 million requested N95 masks; 11% of the 880,000 face shields; 11.6% of the 4.5 million surgical masks; 14% of the 720,000 gowns; 11.7% of 4.3 million gloves; and none of the 10,000 requested ventilators.<\/p>\n

The lack of supplies has led Colorado companies and manufacturers to step in to help fill the gap. But the state is still figuring out how to streamline the process for new producers trying to get their products certified and into the state\u2019s hospitals.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

products say they can\u2019t get their products into the state\u2019s pipeline<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,685,13,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65051"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}