California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday said his state has struck a deal to procure about 200 million protective masks per month that could potentially be used to supply other states in need.
“In the last 48 hours, we have secured through a consortia of nonprofits and a manufacturer here in the state of California upwards of 200 million masks on a monthly basis that we’re confident we can supply the needs of the state of California — potentially the needs of other western states,” Mr. Newsom said on MSNBC.
Mr. Newsom said he’s confident that 150 million-plus N95 masks and 50 million-plus surgical masks will start coming into the state on a monthly basis starting in the next few weeks.
He said the masks are manufactured overseas and that they’ve been able to source them through a California manufacturer and a “consortium” of nonprofit groups.
“[The] vast majority of those masks are N95 masks at a price where we’re not competing against others, we’re not looking at gouging, the fraud and the abuse in this space, competing against other states,” the governor said.
“In the next few weeks, we’re going to see supplies at that level into the state of California and potentially the opportunity to export some of those supplies to states in need,” Mr. Newsom said.
He said California has distributed 41 million N95 masks and that it’s received slightly more than 1 million from the federal government.
“We were going out, getting 5 million here, 500,000 there, 200,000 there, competing against other states, competing against the federal government,” Mr. Newsom said. “We decided enough of the small ball. Let’s use our purchasing power; let’s go at scale.”
California is the most populous state in the country, with nearly 40 million residents, but it’s outside the top 20 in terms of coronavirus cases and deaths per capita. It was the first state to institute a statewide stay-at-home order amid the pandemic.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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