Today, the Department of Defense, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), signed contracts with nine American businesses for the delivery of 73 million COVID-19 disposable isolation gowns at a cost of $335M. The contracts will support the replenishment of the HHS-managed Strategic National Stockpile and deliver by January 2021, ensuring HHS is poised to meet the Nation’s critical medical needs.
These contracts have a ceiling of $1.2 billion to manufacture up to 275 million gowns if the Strategic National Stockpile requires additional gowns.
Today’s contract awards will boost the domestic industrial base for textiles and reduce dependency on foreign sources for critical personal protective items. There was robust competition for the contracts, which were executed by the Defense Logistics Agency.
All of the gowns procured adhere to the Berry Amendment, an acquisition regulation that requires DOD to give preference to domestically produced clothing and textiles. Eight of the nine gown contract awardees are American small businesses, with the largest portion of the quantities going to a woman-owned small business.
On Friday, DOD signed contracts with five U.S. small businesses worth a maximum value of $136 million for 15 million COVID-19 reusable isolation gowns, which will also be used for the replenishment of the Strategic National Stockpile.