South Carolina receives 1.3 million masks from China as coronavirus cases rise
More than a million masks have been delivered from China to South Carolina.
The Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, will be distributed among Prisma hospitals and medical facilities across the state to shield health professionals treating patients with COVID-19, according to Prisma spokeswoman Tammie Epps in a press release.
One hundred thousand of those masks will be going to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, added Prisma Health president and CEO Mark O’Halla.
Gov. Henry McMaster and other state officials were at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport Sunday morning to greet, and celebrate, the arrival of the Boeing Dreamlifter transporting the PPE — 1.3 million medical-grade 3-ply surgical face masks with ear loops.
A converted Boeing 747-400 Large Cargo Freighter touched down at 10:30 a.m. It was the largest aircraft to ever land at the airport and marked Boeing’s second coronavirus-related cargo transport mission on a company-owned aircraft so far.
“On behalf of five million approximately proud, happy South Carolinians, I want to say thank you for everyone who has made this particular moment possible, including President Donald Trump,” said McMaster at an on-site press event to mark the arrival of the masks. “This is a great day for our state and it’s a great day for our country. I look forward to South Carolina getting back to work as quickly as we can and as safely as we can. ... This today is a step in that direction.”
This was a significant acquisition for South Carolina, which is struggling, along with every other state, to arm its frontline health care workers with adequate protective gear to allow them to treat the contagious coronavirus without risking their own personal safety.
Even the 1.3 million masks delivered Sunday won’t last very long, O’Halla cautioned: Prisma, which has about 30,000 employees primarily in the Midlands and Upstate regions, will go through 1.5 million masks in a month
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., noted the happy occasion should not let elected officials lose sight of the “surreal” fact that the state had to rely on China for the masks.
During remarks at the Sunday press event, Graham committed to ensuring the United States would ramp up domestic PPE production, predicting cases of COVID-19 would spike again later this year.
“We don’t want to do this again,” Graham said of reliance on China. “In the fall, we want masks to be made in the United States.”
The masks were secured “from trusted manufacturers in China,” according to Prisma’s press release.
Joining McMaster, O’Halla and Graham was U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., along with U.S. Reps. Jeff Duncan and William Timmons, also South Carolina Republicans.
Officials from Boeing — which has a major manufacturing plant in Charleston and donated the cost of the masks’ transport — were also on hand, as was Neil Ferrier, whose company, Discommon, helped broker the acquisition of the masks.
“This is a wonderful story,” said Scott at the press event. “My mother has been in the health care field for about 45 years. To know that we have critical material and equipment to keep our health care workers on the front line safe is remarkable and it’s a great story of the pipeline of South Carolina’s tremendous history.”
Scott credited Ferrier for using his connections in China and Hong Kong to deliver the PPE. Ferrier, originally from Scotland and a graduate of Clemson University who founded his industrial design company in 2015, said it took five weeks of communication to make the deal to get the masks to South Carolina.
“South Carolina is an incredible place,” Ferrier said. “We’re not done; we have to keep going.”
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on Sunday confirmed 237 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the state to 5,490.
DHEC also reported that, as of Sunday, 174 South Carolinians ave now died from COVID-19.
Symptoms of coronavirus can include a fever, coughing, and difficulty breathing, according to the CDC. Among the emergency warning signs of COVID-19 is trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, and blueish lips or face.
DHEC is encouraging people to practice social distancing to help stop the spread of the virus. Social distancing means refraining from unnecessary interactions with sick people and staying away from large groups of people; it also calls for remaining at home unless it is absolutely necessary to go out.
As of Sunday morning, 2,912,421 people worldwide have been diagnosed with coronavirus and 203,534 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States leads the world with 939,249 people who have been diagnosed with the virus. In the U.S. 53,934 deaths have been reported, including 17,126 in New York City.
In China, 83,909 cases of COVID-19 have been reported, according to Johns Hopkins.
This story was originally published April 26, 2020 at 11:35 AM.
