Jefferson County Public Schools has donated an estimated 40,000 pieces of personal protective equipment to healthcare providers.
The gear doctors and nurses need to help care for patients sick with COVID-19 are in short supply around the country. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says the state is working around the clock to gather more amid the shortage.
"We still don't have what we need for a sustained surge," Beshear said. "My goal is to continue to procure as much of it as possible so we are ready for what we get."
At a JCPS Warehouse loading dock on Thursday, a team of workers filled a truck with boxes of masks, eye protection, gloves and other supplies healthcare providers need.
Eva Stone with JCPS district health services said JSCPS has been collecting its own supply of masks since the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. Recently, officials collected those supplies and even went around to all the health science programs to gather up all the materials ordinarily used for student instruction.
“We have found over 40,000 items. About 25,000 of those are masks, 16,000 surgical masks and about 5,000 of the N95 mask,” Stone said.
The workers are delivering the supplies to the Louisville Metro Health Department for distribution, Stone said.
“We’ve got a lot of community partners but this is a community issue so we wanted these supplies to go to where there is the most need.”
