W.L. Gore has a Number of Products it is Developing to Fight COVID

Sentry has a Range of Portable Air Cleaners

ASHRAE Advises that COVID Can Travel Through HVAC

N80 Masks Should be Worn by Three Billion People Who are in Public Space Every Day.

Localization of Media Supply

Russian Petrochemical Company and Non Wovens Manufacturer are Planning Meltblown Expansion

Travel Bubbles for Those Eliminating COVID and Excluding Those Countries Just Trying to Suppress It

DuPont Doubling Protective Gown Production

Sterile Glove Use for COVID will Rise Throughout the World

KCC Looks to Expand Wiper Business to Address COVID

Full List of Pennsylvania Nursing Homes with COVID Cases is Available

Pressure on Illinois Meat Processing Plants to Close

Sanderson Farms in Bryan Texas Becomes a Hot Spot

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W.L. Gore has a Number of Products it is Developing to Fight COVID

Gore has engineered prototype reusable mask covers to supplement clinicians’ primary face masks. These covers, developed by a cross-divisional team, are made from a material that:

·         is a proprietary Gore high-flow filtration laminate

·         provides greater than 99% aerosolized virus particle protection

·         is water repellent yet air permeable, and

·         can be reused after autoclave or EtO sterilization

This effort went from a product concept to prototypes in less than one week. Gore currently has prototypes being evaluated at a limited number of U.S. facilities in COVID-19 outbreak hot spots. Based on feedback from those piloting the prototype, Gore intends to optimize the PPE Protector design and then scale up production for broader distribution.

 Examples of other initiatives underway include:

·         Protective medical gowns, using fabric laminates from current inventory

·         Universal filter cartridge prototypes for use in respirators, hoods and ventilators that incorporate Gore filtration materials intended to provide N95 particulate protection

·         Disposable N95 respirators, using Gore filtration laminates

Sentry has a Range of Portable Air Cleaners

Portable Air Cleaners are compact, self-contained, air filtration systems that are best utilized in filtering hazardous fumes, vapors and particulates from the ambient air. Typically used in offices, hotel rooms, small warehouses, and locations where ducting and oversized ventilation cannot suffice, portable air cleaners are a necessity to eliminate high volumes of contaminants to protect users, applications and the immediate environment.

 

 

Three models are available. The largest handles 700 CFM.

ASHRAE Advises that COVID Can Travel Through HVAC

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers offers  guidance. “Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through the air is sufficiently likely that airborne exposure to the virus should be controlled. Changes to building operations, including the operation of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems, can reduce airborne exposures,” the trade group said in a statement in April.

A lower-tech solution is simply to allow more fresh air into the building. Like handwashing or covering your cough. According to Joseph Allen of Harvard, ventilating spaces with outdoor air is a basic public health practice and can dilute contaminated indoor air. “If you have operable windows, you keep your windows open,” Allen said. For residents concerned about recirculated air in their building, he added, “a supplemental  control strategy can be the use of portable air purifiers — which, if they have a HEPA filter and they’re sized correctly for the room, can be effective at capturing airborne particles as well.”   

An even less likelier, but definitely more revolting, route of transmission could be a building’s plumbing network. “As little as we know about air, we know considerably less about plumbing,” says Dr. Cassandra Pierre, assistant professor of medicine at Boston University Pierre . “We do know that the virus can be shed in the stool,” she said, and could live in sewage if it’s like other coronaviruses. Pierre points to a famous case in Hong Kong during the SARS outbreak of the early 2000s, when the virus spread to more than 300 people in the Amoy Gardens housing complex — largely through open drains in the bathroom floors, which allowed aerosols from infected waste to migrate throughout the apartment building. 

That’s obviously a scary and disgusting prospect, Pierre acknowledged, but it’s rare to find such drain systems in the United States. (If you’ve ever wondered why most drains have a U-shaped bend in them, it’s to allow water to stay in the pipe, blocking sewage gases from coming back up.) Still, she said, it’s worth ensuring that your drains are working properly. 

N80 Masks Should be Worn by Three Billion People Who are in Public Space Every Day.

In a conversation with Dave Rousse of INDA earlier this week he talked about the N80 concept.  This gives a specific name to what he believes will be a critical mission to assure that everyone in a public space is wearing an efficient mask. In our previous Alerts we have written about the  Berry Development of a mask in this quality range.  We further covered it in a Berry Profile.

We also reported earlier about Ahlstrom-Munksjö, whose products Reliance SMS 200, Reliance SMS 300, Reliance  Dextex 200 and Reliance Dextex 300 have been declared compatible with the French requirements for face masks used by civil servants in contact with the public. The material is typically used for the manufacture of sterilization wraps for surgical instruments. Reliance SMS 200 and Reliance SMS 300 have also been tested compatible with the European Standard EN 14683, meeting the performance criteria of surgical masks. 

This month the company is producing  material equivalent to 100 million face masks for civil servants in contact with the public such as police officers, prison administrators and social workers as well as companies active in essential sectors such as food, energy, water and waste. 

“The attainment of this long-term work for the selection of our products represents a moment of collective pride at Ahlstrom-Munksjö. Our medical business serves the medical device market worldwide all year round, and our agility and ability to innovate makes us an ideal partner in critical situations,” says Lionel Bonte, vice president of medical business. 

Localization of Media Supply

The reality is that the international cooperation which has served us so well in past pandemics is no longer certain. Hopefully this situation will be resolved in the coming years. In the short term localization of media supply will be a priority.

Reicofil, a manufacturers of machinery for meltblown nonwovens, a critical component in N95 facial masks, announced in late March it had shortened the timeframe for the supply of a meltblown line to under four months.

CEO Bernd Reifenhäuser called for state-owned industrial production sites with closed supply chains to supply Europe with protective materials independently and competitively.

“We need a strategic production reserve for medical protective clothing in Europe,” he says. “We have to quickly build up the machine capacity for the industrial production of masks in high volumes but at the same time, the corresponding capacities for the production of the necessary high quality nonwovens in Europe must be created. Otherwise, our dependence will remain at a crucial point in the supply chain.”

Russian Petrochemical Company and Non Wovens Manufacturer are Planning Meltblown Expansion

SIBUR, Russia’s largest integrated petrochemicals company, and Netkanika, a major manufacturer of nonwovens, announced plans to expand their cooperation to provide the healthcare industry with high quality single-use personal protective equipment. Under the agreement, SIBUR provides polypropylene for Netkanika’s nonwovens output serving the medical and hygiene industries. While Netkanika has not announced any line investments amidst increased demand for medical and protective materials, it has focused on some de-bottlenecking and other maintenance tasks to be better prepared for demand growth.

Meanwhile, SIBUR and Netkanika are considering the ways to expand Netkanika’s production capacities to meet current and future demand in the healthcare industry. As part of this initiative, the partners are negotiating a long-term cooperation program providing for SIBUR’s supply of feedstock to Netkanika on favorable terms in order to speed up the potential return on investment.

“Today, we are entirely focused on providing a steady supply of nonwoven materials to our clients that manufacture disposable personal protective equipment, including medical masks and wear, baby and adult hygiene products,” says Rifkat Galimzyanov, general manager of Netkanika. “Due to a demand spike there is a shortage of such materials in the market, which we are prepared to mitigate by engaging additional production capacities.”

Travel Bubbles for Those Eliminating COVID and Excluding Those Countries Just Trying to Suppress It

The first bubble is due to come to life on May 15th between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, among Europe’s best performers in taming the virus. Their citizens will be free to travel inside the zone without quarantine. The next might be a trans-Tasman bubble, tying New Zealand to Australia’s state of Tasmania, both of which have kept new cases down. China and South Korea have launched a ‘fast track’ entry channel for business people.”

The Economist envisions “two large zones that could emerge … The first is in the Asia-Pacific region, where countries from Japan to New Zealand have recorded fewer than ten new infections per 1m residents over the past week. The second is in Europe: using a laxer threshold … the bubble could reach from the Baltic to the Adriatic and take in Germany.

Michael Baker, an epidemiologist at New Zealand’s University of Otago, has a theory, suggesting  that the world could split into two broad categories that will guide travel restrictions: those countries seeking to eliminate Covid-19 (like New Zealand and South Korea), and those (like the US and UK) seeking to merely suppress it.

DuPont Doubling Protective Gown Production

DuPont is doubling production of protective garments it makes from its Tyvek material to about 30 million a month to help meet increased demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The spread of the pandemic across Europe and the United States has led to a worldwide scramble for protective masks, gowns and gloves worn by healthcare and other workers battling to curb the spread of the virus.

Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security estimated this month that a single 100-day COVID-19 wave would create a need for 321 million more isolation gowns, such as those made by DuPont, in the United States alone.

Before the coronavirus crisis, the global market for personal protective equipment (PPE) was valued at about $40 billion annually, with DuPont and U.S. peers Honeywell International Inc and 3M Co among the biggest players. That will now increase.

"We're producing up to almost two times the number of garments per month to help support the demand that's currently in front of us," John Richard, vice president of DuPont's safety business told Reuters.

DuPont's Tyvek, a fabric used in gowns and coveralls for protective use, has been a silver lining for the company as it faces steep declines in demand for its products in the auto sector and other industries hammered by the virus.

DuPont is a top player in the PPE market with other products such as protective gloves, flame-resistant and chemical protective clothing.

The company expects the heightened demand to continue at least until later this year as industries resume operations and bring back workers using additional safety measures. DuPont, which makes Tyvek in Richmond, Virginia and Luxembourg, has re-purposed its manufacturing operations and simplified some designs to eke out more pieces per square area of the fabric.

Dow, part of the erstwhile DowDuPont conglomerate before a split last year, has also started making sanitizers and face shields to meet growing demand.

Sterile Glove Use for COVID will Rise Throughout the World

Glove manufacturers around the world are increasing production to meet the demands caused by COVID. The following five companies have a worldwide presence.

Ansell Ltd.

Ansell Ltd. operates its business through segments such as Industrial and Healthcare. The company offers sterile gloves under the brands, GAMMEX and MICRO-TOUCH DermaClean Sterile.

B. Braun Melsungen AG

B. Braun Melsungen AG operates its business through segments such as B. Braun Hospital Care, B. Braun Aesculap, B. Braun Out Patient Market, and B. Braun Avitum. The company offers sterile gloves under the brand, Vasco OP Sensitive.

Cardinal Health Inc.

Cardinal Health Inc. operates its business through segments such as Pharmaceutical and Medical. The company offers sterile gloves under the brand, Protexis.

Dynarex Corp.

Dynarex Corp. operates its business through segments such as Disposable medical products and Durable medical equipment. The company offers sterile gloves under the brand, Dynarex.

Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. operates its business through segments such as Personal Care, Consumer Tissue, and K-C Professional (KCP). The company offers sterile gloves under the brand, KIMTECH PURE.

KCC Looks to Expand Wiper Business to Address COVID

In the April 22, 2020 earnings call Kimberly Clark executives answered analysts questions relative to COVID and PPE.

Lauren Lieberman -- Barclays Capital -- Analyst

And then right now in that wipers and safety business, I think on the KCP website sort of talked about we're doing our best to keep up with demand. So you can just tell us a little bit about, I think just to be educational for people, what does PPE products are? If you are currently running full out on those businesses and what growth looks like there? Because, again, just trying to fit together that order of magnitude of K-C Professional being down in the second quarter makes perfect sense, but how much, right? And we can all -- if you give us the tools, we can try to come up with estimates on our own of what that looks like?

Michael D. Hsu -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I may ask Paul to jump in, but I will say maybe the bigger part of the business that we feel like we can expand right now is on the wiper side, and that's a great business for us and strong performing. And we're seeing that that commensurate increase starting to come through now. On the safety side, it is a relatively small business for us, we don't produce any of the PPE masks or gloves directly. We have those co-packed and so we are in a tight supply situation as everybody else in the world have. And so we expect that to grow over time. But in the near term, we're in a tight supply situation. Paul, anything to add there.

Paul Alexander -- Investor Relations

Yeah. Thanks, Mike. So, Lauren and for everyone on the call, just to level set on KCP's rough product exposure, about 65% is tissue-based products, about 20% is wipers and then about 10% is -- are these safety and scientific products that Mike mentioned. The safety and scientific products are primarily apparel and gloves with a little bit of eyewear as well. Masks are an insignificant part of the business.

 

Full List of Pennsylvania Nursing Homes with COVID Cases is Available

 

Here is the first page of 56 pages with names of nursing homes in PA with COVID cases.  A link to the full list is provided below.

Page 1 of 56

 

The full list is displayed at https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/05/full-list-of-pa-nursing-homes-with-coronavirus-cases-and-deaths.html

Pressure on Illinois Meat Processing Plants to Close

As the number of infections continue to rise at the nation's meat processing plants, a small group of doctors gathered in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood Tuesday, May 19 to call on the governor to shut them down.

"We want the slaughterhouses to close, as they are a place where over 16,000 workers have gotten COVID," said Dr. Ashwani Garg of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a doctors' animal rights group. "It's an assembly line, and you have to have people right next to each other."

According to a recent tally, as of Monday COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported in at least 215 plants nationally, including 10 in Illinois.

Among them is Rose Packing near Midway Airport and the Smithfield plant in St. Charles, which both had to temporarily close in April.

"I have a long list of factory complaints, it's not just Smithfield," said State Rep. Karina Villa (D-IL 49). "Smithfield is the one that got the attention."

For workers, the choice is a difficult one: go to work with fears of contracting the disease or stay home and risk losing a job.

"I was very afraid," said Calvin Beck, former meat processing plant employee "I thought they would shut it down but, you know, they had us working. I had to make ends meet. I had to come to work."

But while food processing plants remain hot spots for infection, some say things are slowly getting better at larger plants like Smithfield, where Rep. Villa said at least four workers have died.

"They have reduced the amount of people per line, they have, in the common areas, they have put dividers, for example in the locker rooms where people have to be in tighter quarters," she said. "They've provided the appropriate protective equipment for people."

Sanderson Farms in Bryan Texas Becomes a Hot Spot

Health issues at meat processing plants continue during the pandemic, as more than two dozen employees test positive for COVID-19 at a poultry processing plant in Texas.

Dr. Seth Sullivan says the Brazos County Health Department is working closely with Sanderson Farms in Bryan due to an outbreak of cases at the plant. Twenty-six employees have been affected — with roughly a dozen of those cases happening in the past week.

“They’ve been in touch with the state, we’ve been in touch with the state, about the most appropriate way of dealing with this moving forward,” Sullivan said. The state has strike teams in place ready to respond to nursing homes, prisons, and places like Sanderson Farms although that action has yet to happen.