SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. — Masks are being donated and made throughout the state, but where can you find them when so many can’t be found in the store.
Many companies across the state are making personal protective equipment such as face masks, so when people go out in public, they can protect themselves.
Siftex based in South Windsor was once just a flexible connector manufacturing company, but now is producing face masks in Somers at a converted manufacturing facility.
The company spoke with FOX61 saying it saw the need for masks and plans on doing their part to make sure everyone has access to personal protective equipment.
Steve Weil the president of Siftex said, “This is a very unusual time and people need us and first responders need us, the general public is going to need us, so we are focusing a lot on the face masks product.”
According to Weil, the company already started manufacturing industrial fabrics and it was simple to convert to lighter material.
Katty Garcia who is the sewing operations team leader said, “It was not that bad, but you have to think in terms of doing the size, doing the prototypes, it was a process I would say less than a week and a half to set everything up and to get prototype samples and get it running on the floor.”
That’s not all that’s being made, Siftex says face shields like this will soon be available online.
FOX61 has the link here where you can also find more face shields made at New Britain’s high school.
OKAY industries paired with Hartford Healthcare and the New Britain school district to start an assembly line earlier this week.
Nancy Sarra who is the New Britain Superintendent of Schools said, “We have many high school students who would like to be apart of this as well, we prefer they don’t but the fact that they are reaching out... understanding that coming together during this time is critically important.”
Towards the shoreline in New Haven, Over 100,000 N-95 masks and other PPE were delivered to the front lines of the Yale-New Haven Healthcare System; donated from Chinese-American volunteers.
This donation goes straight to healthcare staff, but officials say more will be needed as the state combats COVID-19.
“We use a lot of PPE on a daily basis and we try to get as many as we can but it’s hard to predict how much we will need depends on how many patients we have, and we will always be looking for more,” said Dr. Gary Desir with the Yale School of Medicine.
Back in Somers, Siftex is already working to complete a 25,000 face mask order from the state and several small orders on top of that, so according to the manufacturing company more, PPE will be on the way.
Weil said, “We’re all in this together... if we stay focused and follow the rules of social distancing and wearing masks, and washing our hands we’ll get through this.”
Siftex in a call to action, calling on all seamstresses saying if they want to make face masks they will provide the proponents to make it.
Of course, there are many more face masks and PPE makers across the state. It’s advised to look online and in-stores to find what someone may need.