West Covina Unified Donates 21K Masks To Local Hospital
WEST COVINA (CBSLA) – The West Covina Unified School District announced Friday it donated thousands of masks from its stockpile to a local hospital amid the coronavirus pandemic which has lead to a worldwide shortage of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.
The district reports that earlier this week it donated 21,600 masks to Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center.
The donation includes 1,600 N95 masks and 20,000 medical face masks.
The masks were part of an emergency stockpile the district had been growing following the swine flu pandemic in 2009 in case its teachers and staff would need them.
Last week, the Los Angeles Unified School District donated 100,000 N95 masks from its own stockpile to 10 local hospitals.
On Thursday, L.A. County and city officials implored Angelenos to refrain from purchasing medical-grade masks. Instead, they recommend using face-coverings such as bandannas or scarves when going out in public.
Some people have even posted videos online showing how to make masks with boxer shorts and other unusual items.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this week reported that the state has distributed more than 32 million N95 masks to local hospitals. Newsom said the goal is to distribute 101 million of them.