The Northwest region of Wisconsin has a limited supply of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). Healthcare workers and first responders using PPE in northwest Wisconsin, as well as the rest of the state, are being asked to save their used N95 masks for decontamination.
Sawyer County will soon be the latest location in Wisconsin to have a UV Decontamination System. The system cleans PPE so that it can be re-used.
Sawyer County Emergency Manager Patricia Sanchez said, “We are sure to see a surge in the need for N95 masks in the next few weeks, therefore it will be extremely important to be able to reuse as much as we can.”
People in 11 counties including Sawyer, Ashland, Iron Price, Rusk, Barron, Polk, Burnett, Washburn and Douglas, will be able to utilize the site.
Sawyer County’s UV decontamination site is just one of several already in place in Wisconsin, and with capacity to service N95 masks and other PPE. Facilities are already operational in Brown, Dane, and Kenosha counties.
In addition, last week Wisconsin received a delivery of 230,000 N95 respirator masks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), providing a needed boost to efforts to obtain PPE for distribution in the state. FEMA has also informed the state that it will be receiving technology in the form of a Battelle CCDS Critical Care Decontamination System to help decontaminate N95 masks, which will help extend the life of these important supplies.