On July 17, the Department of Defense, in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, signed a $3.5 million contract award with Crosstex International, Inc. to increase domestic production of surgical masks.
Surgical masks are critical pieces of personal protective equipment for our nation’s medical community on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Crosstex currently operates mask production lines at full capacity in its upstate New York facilities. The $3.5M investment would support capital investments to procure additional machine lines through its longstanding partnership with its current domestic machine fabricator. The additional lines would increase Crosstex’s production by an additional 100 million surgical masks a year. The increases to production will begin in May 2021, when Crosstex anticipates delivery of their first new machine line. The remaining three lines will be delivered and fully operational no later than November 2021.
This contract award is part of the ongoing collaboration between DOD and HHS, led by the Department’s Joint Acquisition Task Force (JATF) and funded through the CARES Act, to enable and support domestic industrial base expansion for critical medical resources.