Adafruit has applied for a COVID-19 manufacturing grant to make masks in NYC: the Coronavirus Grant at FuzeHub:

Six of New York State’s small to medium-sized manufacturers will share in $400K of grant money to produce PPE & respiratory care equipment.

The COVID-19 Manufacturing Grants, part of the Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund, are designed to aid existing New York State small to medium-sized manufacturing companies that can meet prevailing FDA requirements and can quickly accelerate production of personal protective equipment and respiratory care equipment that has been depleted due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

These grants serve as a resource to assist manufacturers with increasing capacity in current operations as well as to pivot production in an effort to build and assemble these critical need items: specifically, N95 respirators and ventilators.

FuzeHub provides New York State manufacturers and technology companies with guided access to our extensive network of industry experts, programs and assets to solve productivity, commercialization, research and development issues, and other challenges to growth.

FuzeHub’s programs champion the New York State manufacturing and technology community and provide targeted resources to accelerate manufacturing competitiveness and technology commercialization.

Adafruit applied to make PPE, we are currently making face shields for the NYC gov as well as for local hospitals. We are are already manufacturing electronics for ventilator effort and medical devices while we operate as an essential business. Read more at https://adafruit.com/covid. We do all of this in NYC, in Manhattan. NYC *needs* to have local production for masks, andthat is what we will do. We’ll see if we get the grant which will help us achieve that goal. We have the space, the talent, and we operate multi-million dollar machinery to make complex electronics. Most of all – we are New Yorkers that have, are, and will do everything to help our city.

We have the quotes to get started, and sources for the machinery and materials. The only thing we cannot do is divert payroll funds. We are currently paying all 100+ employees, team members, contractors, outside services… with no layoffs, no furloughs, no cut hours. We are 100% woman-owned, no bank loans or VC, always been profitable. (We applied for a PPP loan, our revenue is down 90% as expected, since March 16th).

Adafruit started in an apartment over 10 years ago a few blocks from ground zero in downtown Manhattan. Now we’re a factory operating as an essential service and business for critical manufacturing in NYC by executive order 202.6. We were made for this.

We’ve been on this path to get a machine in by end of April, here is the video from April 4th. If you are a NYC / NYS philanthropist, financier, and want to help email: [email protected] We will apply for a loan, whatever it takes.

If organizations are looking to develop and lead the strategies for business development and inclusive economy initiatives at the intersection of the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE), and cooperative ecosystems, this is it.

Spain:
Spain to hand out millions of masks at subway stations.

Police in Spain are handing out face masks at train stations to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus – Twitter.

Singapore:
Person posted up the govt-issued masks.

Let’s do this New York!