MOHAVE COUNTY – The Mohave County Department of Public Health in conjunction with the Mohave County Department of Procurement is working on procuring at least a half a million 3-ply surgical face masks that will be distributed to local hospitals and first responders. According to Supervisor Buster Johnson, due to the shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE), having the County secure the order will save money for all parties involved and hopefully guarantee the shipment. “Our Procurement Department identified a vendor that can provide the surgical masks with the quickest turn around; however, in order to make the purchase we have to procure a minimum of 500,000,” Johnson explained. “We are securing agreements with all four of our main hospitals in the region in order to meet the quantity requirement.”
The Procurement Department has thus far received commitments to purchase 100,000 units each from Kingman Regional Medical Center (KRMC), Valley View Medical Center in Bullhead City, Western Arizona Regional Medical Center in Bullhead City, and Lake Havasu Regional Medical Center. “We will be doing a 5-way cost split with 400,000 going to the local hospitals and the other 100,000 being distributed to assisted livings, our fire and law enforcement personal, and our local hospice,” Supervisor Johnson stated.
The surgical masks will cost .35 cents each and have an estimated delivery of April 17 through April 24. While these surgical masks are not the high grade N95 masks, they can be used for multiple purposes. In a hospital setting they are used for many procedures along with patient care. Depending on their use, they can be used a few times over; however, it is recommended that if they are used around COVID-19 patients or those showing symptoms they should be exposed of immediately after the first use.
Supervisor Johnson stated that “during times like this you can count on our Health and Procurement Departments step up to help out our community through innovative solutions. With the emergent need for surgical face masks, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I am glad we can all work together to ensure those on the front lines of this pandemic are staying safe and are able to have enough PPE to get through these trying times,” Johnson ended.
