TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that 1 million N95 masks are coming to Florida health care workers along with more pieces of personal protective equipment.
The announcement was made during a news conference on the state's response to COVID-19.
"Those are probably the most sought after pieces of PPE right now," DeSantis said of the masks. "We have 800,000 of that shipment in hand."
The masks will be sent from Florida's Division of Emergency Management to health care workers across Florida and to front-line hospitals, according to the governor.
In addition to the new masks, DeSantis said the following protective equipment will be sent to Florida within the next 36 hours:
- 1.2 million procedure masks
- 100,000 face shields
- 500,000 gloves
- 60,000 containers of hand sanitizer
- 35,000 gowns
DeSantis said with this new push for equipment, the state will have distributed:
- 5.5 million gloves
- 564,000 shoe covers
- 615,000 face shields
- 300,000 gowns
- 100,000 containers of hand sanitizer
- 47,000 goggles
- 22,000 coveralls
"That is a massive amount of equipment," DeSantis said. "It's more than the division has ever done in Florida's history."
As of 5 p.m., the Florida Department of Health reports 21,367 cases of COVID-19 have been reported across the state and 524 deaths have been reported.
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