SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — Since the COVID-19 pandemic spread to the United States, 3M has shipped over half a million respirators to two of the hardest-hit cities in the country, New York City, and Seattle.
The multi-billion dollar company states on its website that since the COVID-19 outbreak, 3M has doubled its global output of N95 respirators to an annual rate of over 1.1 billion per year, or nearly 100 million per month globally. In the U.S., 3M currently manufactures more than 400 million N95 respirators annually, which is increasingly being directed to support both government and public health response.
In a LinkedIn post, 3M CEO and Chairman Mike Roman further expounded on the uptick in production, stating that 3M has accelerated its investments to expand its global capacity even more. The company anticipates being able to nearly double its capacity again, to almost 2 billion respirators globally, within the next 12 months.
3M is currently working with the U.S. and other governments, investigating alternate manufacturing scenarios, and exploring coalitions with other companies to increase capacity to further maximize the production of a wide range of other solutions being used in the response, including hand sanitizers and disinfectants.
At the time of the original post, Roman said that one of the companies South Dakota plants had more than 500,000 respirators ready to ship.
According to the state’s respective Departments of Health, Washington state currently stands at 4,896 confirmed cases with 195 deaths. While New York City has 36,221 and a death toll of 790 as of March 30th, 2020. South Dakota currently has 101 confirmed cases, one death, and 34 recoveries.
(Shannon Marvel of The Mitchell Daily Republic contributed to this report.)
