West Virginia innovation to help create PPE stockpile

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, providing personal protective gear like N95 masks, gloves and gowns to those on the front lines was no easy task.

While production has ramped up nationwide, the demand hasn't and isn’t going away.

Maj. Gen. James Hoyer with the West Virginia National Guard says Gov. Jim Justice tasked state leaders with this question: “How do you address our own problems, but how do we create that into an opportunity going forward for West Virginia to be an innovative leader?”

Wednesday Gen. Hoyer showed how the state has been doing just that in the two and a half months since the pandemic was declared.

According to Hoyer the state’s plan is to have a six-month stockpile of PPE, testing supplies and ventilators should there be a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Much of the innovation is happening in West Virginia with the help of West Virginia companies.

At Azimuth in Morgantown, they've built an automated bag ventilator system.

“In conjunction with the West Virginia National Guard and the WVU Medical Center, Azimuth developed the Automated Bag Ventilator System to increase our state’s crisis preparedness,” said Joshua Day, a project manager and electrical engineer for Azimuth, Inc., in a news release “Unlike other portable ventilator systems, our system incorporates patient safety redundancies in a low cost, low power, and portable solution.”

“This is now being looked at by the military special operations and the emergency response community in the military to be used for field expedient capabilities going forward,” Hoyer said Wednesday during a news conference.

In March when COVID-19 testing was limited, Dr. Cathy Slemp, the state health officer, explained that she was taking a part flu tests in order to use the swabs intended for flu testing to ensure the state could test people or the virus.

Now West Virginia University and WVU Hospitals have partnered with a 3D printing manufacturer to make up to 10,000 swabs per week.

Reusable medical gowns are being made by prisoners in West Virginia. Materials have been donated by DuPont. To this point, 3,500 gowns have been made through the raw materials from the company and Mustang Survival, a company based in Spencer.

According to Hoyer, they challenged the inmates to think of other ideas when it comes to producing the gowns and they’ve now come up with a third and fourth model idea. The most talked about mask during the pandemic has been the N95.

The West Virginia Mask is now being tested at WVU and with National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to see how it can help prevent particulates from making people on the front lines ill.

Unlike the current N95 mask, the West Virginia version, that is gray with the flying WV on it, can be reused. If it is approved, there will be capabilities to make 5,000 per day. People on the front lines would get them for free. Other states would be able to purchase them.

According to a news release, they are being “looked at by other state and national organizations as a potential breakthrough in mask technology.”

The press release goes on to say:

“The mask itself is a soft, form-fitting unit that will mold itself to a wearer's face, providing a safe seal, with the benefit of a removable filtration system. Filter materials can be made from various materials to meet different requirements, including carbon filters and up to N-95 filtration. Filter materials can be disposed of after use, the mask sanitized, and with new filter elements can be reutilized hundreds of times. In addition to the built-in filter flexibility, the mask also incorporates an oxygen outlet which can allow medical personnel to begin oxygen treatments for patients without their mask having to be removed, thereby mitigating potential exposure to harmful pathogens.”