CBS2 and KCAL9 report that the West Covina Unified School District has donated thousands of masks to a local hospital.
The school district announced Friday it donated its surplus of more than 21,000 medical masks to Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park on March 31. This action comes after the Coronavirus pandemic has lead to a worldwide shortage of protective equipment for healthcare workers.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune adds that the donation includes 1,600 N95 masks and 20,000 medical face masks. The masks were part of an emergency stockpile the district had been growing following the swine flu pandemic in 2009 in case its teachers and staff would need them.
The Tribune continues that senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center, Eugene Cho, praised the donation in a news release:
“We greatly appreciate the incredible support of our communities, businesses and members as we work to source additional supplies."
The West Covina Unified School District mask donations follows LAUSD's donation of 100,000 N95 masks to 10 local hospitals.
See the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and WCUSD's photo of the donations below:
L.A. County officials have implored Angelenos to refrain from purchasing medical-grade mask, and recommend using face-coverings like bandannas, scarves, etc when going out in public.
PHOTOS:
Main block image: Getty Images
Image above: Photo courtesy of West Covina Unified School District / San Gabriel Valley Tribune