Department of General Services Office of State Procurement Works with Maryland Vendors to Obtain Personal Protective Equipment
BALTIMORE, MD – The Maryland Department of General Services’ Office of State Procurement serves as the primary procurement agency securing various commodities required to mitigate the State of Emergency declared on March 5, 2020 by Governor Larry Hogan. In an effort to secure scarce resources, the department worked with approximately 100 vendors to procure personal protective equipment (PPE) for Maryland citizens, law enforcement officials, and medical staff. Approximately half of the vendors are Maryland-based businesses. During a span of 75 days of intense emergency purchasing, vendors from every region of the state contributed to over 170 million individual pieces of the PPE.
“The state continues to do everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our citizens,” said General Services Secretary Ellington E. Churchill, Jr.. “Working with Maryland vendors to procure essential personal protective equipment is just one of the many steps we are taking to achieve this goal.”
Governor Hogan’s Maryland Strong Roadmap to Recovery was designed to efficiently, effectively, and safely get Maryland moving again by getting Maryland citizens back to work and getting businesses reopened. As one of the four building blocks to recovery, the department was tasked to ramp up the supply of PPE, securing and continuing to receive over 170,000,000 pieces of PPE for use throughout Maryland including: 13,400,000+ N95 masks; 45,900,000+ KN95 masks; 95,500+ gallons of hand sanitizer; 31,500,000+ surgical masks; 24,800,000+ gowns; 52,200,000+ gloves, 2,000,000+ face shields; 64,000+ containers of disinfecting wipes; 510,000+ goggles; 4,000+ Tyvek suits; and 200,000+ coveralls for use throughout Maryland.
Over the next several weeks, General Services will be sharing a series of videos through social media of a number of different Maryland-based businesses who have been producing and providing PPE to help Maryland get back on track. Many of these businesses did not produce PPEs prior COVID-19 and altered their business models to provide PPEs to support first responders and the citizens of Maryland.
Video: Watch Maryland Strong Partnership Spotlight: ClearMask.