Politics & Government
MA Coronavirus: Hospitals Get N95 Mask Decontaminated For Free
Somerville's Old Kmart lot has just turned into a decontamination site for N95 masks. The machine can process up to 80,000 masks a day.
SOMERVILLE, MA — A site opened this week in Somerville where as many as 80,000 used N95 masks will be decontaminated each day for free, thanks to a public-private partnership and a federal grant, Gov. Charlie Baker announced.
"The federal government's grant is not going to last forever, but it's going to last a while, and that's a good thing," said Baker outside the site Saturday.
The decontamination center, housed in a group of shipping containers, sits across from the Assembly Row campus of Partners HealthCare, which is taking part in the project. Battelle, an Ohio-based chemical defense contractor, owns the technology and has three other similar decontamination machines deployed in Ohio, New York and Washington.
Find out what's happening in Somervillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
When hospitals drop off soiled masks, they are sorted and placed on racks in specially designed trailers for treatment. The masks are then repackaged and then returned to the hospitals that dropped them off, officials said.
The machine decontaminates the masks, which would otherwise be thrown away, using high concentration, vapor phase hydrogen peroxide.
Find out what's happening in Somervillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
As many as 100 hospitals across the commonwealth will use the system, Baker said.
The effort brought together Battelle, Partners Healthcare, the city of Somerville, Federal Realty and the state and federal governments.
The pop-up facility was designed by Battelle and originally approved by the FDA in 2015.
"This isn't something we just put together; it's something studied and tested previously," said Chris Coburn from Partners HealthCare.
Coburn said the machine is decontaminating 25,000 masks per week, and that each mask can be decontaminated up to 20 times — a less expensive option than buying new masks, especially at a time when it's so difficult to secure them.
"This machine will keep more masks in use and will sustain our personal protective equipment," said Baker.
State health officials on Friday reported that another 2,033 people tested positive for the new coronavirus, bringing the total to 10,974 cases. There have been 599 deaths since the outbreak started.
Baker also said:
- The governor said he recognizes that until now, the unemployment assistance application has been challenging for non-English speakers. The Department of Unemployment Assistance has created multilingual guides, and is pursuing a better system. There's now a way to get COVID-19 updates not only in English but in Spanish. The state has also put together instructions in Spanish for unemployment forms.
- Grocery store workers can now get tested alongside first responders at Gillette Stadium and the fair grounds at the Big E, even if they are not showing symptoms.
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