West Chester buying masks from China for fire department

West Chester Twp. sign.

West Chester Twp. sign.

Capitalizing on West Chester Twp. Trustee Lee Wong’s connection with the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce the township now has a shipment of 1,500 face masks and 50 thermometers headed here from China.

The trustees approved the $17,500 purchase for the fire department last night and the shipment from Shanghai is due here on Friday. Fire Chief Rick Prinz said the masks will arrive just as the department runs out.

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“We have a four-day burn rate,” he said. “We know in the weeks to come it’s just going to keep inclining so I anticipate it will get to the point where we will have to go to the EMA to get part of our stockpile on a daily basis, just to have enough masks get through the day”

Chamber Executive Director Leo Chan said he sent word out to Chamber members like Wong that they were working to get personal protective equipment. so far 150,000 masks have been ordered for entities in this area and the first shipment is expected tonight.

“When the COVID 19 starts hitting the United States and the outbreaks seems to start in this community, we tried to think and ask ourselves how can we best help the community,” Chan said. “Given everything that’s going on it seems most logical to help set up this supply chain for PPEs.”

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