NEW YORK CITY SETS UP PRODUCTION OF PROTECTIVE GEAR AT BROOKLYN NAVY YARD

On Monday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio visited the Brooklyn Navy Yard where manufacturers are making surgical gowns to keep our healthcare workers safe. The city is working with manufactures to create production lines for protective equipment critical in the fight against COVID-19. Public hospitals have at least a week’s worth of gowns to protect their workers, but private hospitals and nursing homes are running low. Every piece of equipment counts in the fight to save the lives of New Yorkers.

During his visit to the Navy Yard, Mayor de Blasio saw a production line run by Crye Precision, a design and manufacturing company based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard that is producing gowns with the help of womenswear brand Lafayette 148 and other sewing shops at the Yard. The administration projects over 300,000 gowns will be produced by the end of April by factories across the city.

Last week, Adafruit, a Manhattan-based company that makes machine components; Makerspace NYC, a community workspace for industrial manufacturing at Brooklyn Army Terminal; Bednark Studios, a custom fabrication company at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; and Duggal Digital Solutions, a custom printing company, produced and distributed 127,000 face shields to the Department of Health. Over the next three months, local industrial firms will manufacture up to 1.5 million face shields.

In March, the New York City Economic Development Corporation began coordinating with local businesses to manufacture needed medical supplies at scale as part of the COVID-19 emergency response. The administration facilitates coordination with the Department of Health to ensure products meet the city’s safety standards and protocols. The city has received over 2,000 responses so far to its call for local production.

“New Yorkers band together in a crisis – and this production line is exactly the kind of solidarity that will get us through this,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Day by day, we are assessing what we need to keep our frontline workers safe– and the ability to produce protective equipment here in New York City is critical.”