A Mississippi non-profit is recruiting volunteers to make face masks to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. As MPB’s Desare Frazier reports, they aren’t alone...a Mississippi business has also revamped its factory to help meet the demand for protective face masks.
Mississippi like the rest of the nation faces a dire shortage of face masks to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. The shortage is especially acute in prisons and jails according to Paloma Wu with the Mississippi Center for Justice. In Mississippi, there are some 19,000 people housed within the state department of corrections, where staying six-feet apart isn’t an option.
"The Center's for Disease Control have been very clear. The need for a cloth mask is the need for a barrier. Largely it's to protect staff but also the people who are residents in these confined communities," said Wu.
Neighboring Louisiana is experiencing a surge in Coronavirus cases in its prisons. Two inmates at a federal facility have died and 30 other inmates and staff are infected. The entire federal prison system is now under a shutdown order. Also sixty people at another Louisiana facility are infected with the virus. Infection is so severe, they’ve reportedly stopped testing inmates. Wu says similar outbreaks in this state could put all Mississippians at risk.
"One out break, bad outbreak in a facility can knock over our entrie critical care system. And then when your mom needs it or you need it, you won't be able to access it," said Wu.
Wu says their attempts to have inmates who are at high risk of contracting the virus released hasn’t gained steam. She says face masks are the next best option. Wu calls the month old project Mississippi Masks Drive---and she says they are getting requests for several thousand masks at one time.
"You know that percentage of everybody that's going to get sick that's going to need critical care beds, we need to keep those beds as open as possible and prevent there being those hotspots and all these confined facilities are potentially hotspots," said Wu.
"I'm 80 years old, so I'm one of those at the high risk and I have other underlying conditions, so I'm staying in. So this is great to keep me busy," said Baker.
Volunteer, Norma Baker of Clinton, has sewed more than 300 face masks for the drive using mounds of fabric she accumulated from making quilts. She says she mailed a relative who manages an assisted living center in Arizona,100 because they didn’t have any. She’s also provided them to local institutions and nursing homes in the area.
"It reminds me of the war efforts years ago and I just think that we are in a war right now and this is one way that those of us who are able can help," said Baker.
Businessman Josh West of Blue Delta Jeans in Tupelo, saw a need. He decided to retool his luxury jean factory to make face masks.
"To just change your whole factory over and make another product, if you had told me that in February, I would have told you you're crazy. But we're in unprecedented times, we're taking unprecedented steps and it's not comfortable but it's necessary," said West.
West says they initially put out a social media post saying they think they could make them but they needed advice from medical experts. He says the response was overwhelming. West says Mississippi State University’s Energy Institute helped them test the face masks. He calls them face guards and says they’re not for contaminated environments.
"People working in the checkout lines, first responders, people that aren't going into the operating rooms, aren't going into a contaminated environment. It's a good face guard to use as a shield," said West.
West adds orders for his luxury jeans have declined. By making masks he says they’re helping Mississippi and keeping employees on the payroll at the same time. The factory can make 10,000 face guards in a week. West says he gets calls from all over the country but his focus is on filling orders for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. MEMA distributes them to county emergency offices, who then give them out to first responders and healthcare providers.
"It's temporary for us. We're not trying to be in the mask business. We want to get back to making jeans as soon as possible. But this is allowing our people to stay busy and helping our state with the need," said West.
Mississippians who want to help can go to the Mississippi Center for Justice website to volunteer. There’s a video that explains how to make face masks there. Facilities in need of masks can use the website to place orders. https://www.mscenterforjustice.org/