NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — This Sunday, Arkansas received a large shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE).
“This is such a blessing for this to come in on Easter Sunday,” Governor Asa Hutchinson said.
The trucks arrived in Arkansas with much-needed packages.
“We finally received a very large shipment of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers across Arkansas,” Hutchinson said.
Governor Hutchinson said the PPE is needed for those on the frontlines of COVID-19.
“What you see are six FedEx trucks full of N95 masks, surgical gowns, and gloves that are so much needed in the state of Arkansas,” he said.
The National Guard unloaded trucks and Federal Surplus Property will be distributing it.
“This is going to go to our doctors, our nurses, our hospitals, our clinics, our first responders here in Arkansas. We hope to also get to our other priority items of our first responders,” he said.
Now, they can work with a little more peace knowing they have access to the proper gear. The governor said this protection is important for everyone in the state.
“Literally everyone, we’re talking about millions of product right here in these shipments that should last us at least 30 days in the state,” he said.
It’s the first large shipment of state purchased items and it took about 30 days to arrive.
“Yesterday all of this product was in China. It flew from China by charter flight to Memphis and it trucked here,” he said.
Governor Hutchinson looks forward to more shipments.
“We have to book production time on the factory floor and so we’ve already booked more production time, more air flights to bring this in,” he said.
He said the next shipment of supplies are already in the works because this supply will run out at some point.
Governor Hutchinson said this is the result of a lot of hard work with UAMS, the procurement team, and all the people who will be working to get it out.