Under Armour to manufacture 500,000 face masks to address coronavirus

Maryland-based athletic apparel manufacturer Under Armour announced Monday that it will manufacture half a million surgical masks for medical personnel in the state dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.

The Baltimore Sun reported that the company said in a statement that it will produce at least 500,000 face masks and produce thousands of hospital gowns and face shields, critical pieces of protective equipment for hospitals that have been in short supply. The donation will be made to the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS).

“This will give UMMS in particular the rare ability to put masks on anyone entering their hospital system, possibly one of the few medical systems in the country that will have this ability,” a company spokesperson told the Sun.

Additional details about the donation will reportedly be made in a public announcement by the company on Tuesday.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), along with the mayor of Washington, D.C., and the governor of Virginia, on Monday directed residents to remain at home, with some exceptions as the number of coronavirus cases in the state passed 1,400, including more than a dozen deaths.

Hogan appeared on “Fox News Sunday” this weekend and dismissed the idea that the state would reopen for normal business in a matter of weeks, predicting that the state would soon face a surge in cases.

“In spite of the fact that we’ve taken some of the most aggressive steps in the country on social distancing, and we were out front of nearly every state on some of these things, we’ve been taking unprecedented actions every day for the past three weeks, it’s continuing to grow at really kind of frightening paces,” Hogan said. “We think it’s going to be worse in two weeks, not better.”