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Parkdale Mills Collaborates with FDA, Gates Foundation and Others to Supply Swabs for Coronavirus Tests

Parkdale Mills subsidiary U.S. Cotton has joined in an effort with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Gates Foundation, UnitedHealth Group and Quantigen to ramp up production of spun synthetic swabs to help the country’s frontline health care workers administering tests for the COVID-19 disease.

U.S. Cotton has developed a fully synthetic, polyester-based Q-tip-type swab that can be used in coronavirus diagnostic testing.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just announced that these synthetic swabs – with a design similar to Q-tips – could be used to test patients for the coronavirus.
U.S. Cotton, based in Cleveland, Ohio, plans to leverage its large-scale manufacturing capacity to rapidly increase production of large quantities of the polyester swabs, which are in short supply for testing kits across the country.

The FDA has determined that spun synthetic swabs can be used in COVID-19 testing based on the results from a clinical investigation stemming from its collaboration with UnitedHealth Group, the Gates Foundation and Quantigen.  

This is the second major COVID-19 relief project that Parkdale has helped. Earlier Parkdale constructed a supply chain that includes Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, and many other U.S. companies in the production of PPE masks needed by frontline medical staff treating the virus.

Fairfield Chair Co. has retooled its production of chairs and sofas to high-in-demand surgical gowns in an effort to help rush supplies to health care companies on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the spread of the coronavirus impacted Fairfield and the entire U.S. manufacturing sector, Fairfield executives jumped into action.

The seating manufacturer, which essentially took a crash course on apparel patternmaking and industry specs, has switched its production to surgical gowns overnight. In just over a week, Fairfield produced its first samples of the surgical gown and immediately received approval on the prototype from Blue Ridge Healthcare in North Carolina, which has placed an initial order for 1,200 surgical gowns.
Cotswold Industries worked closely with Fairfield to help the company pivot to gown and mask manufacturing and provide the materials needed for the finished products.

Fairfield is also tapping into the experience it gained from producing seating for senior living facilities, which require certain materials with antimicrobial finishes.
“We are very accustomed to working with antimicrobial fabrics however, we have never worked with wovens that are developed to meet specifications like this material has to,” states McClurd, vice President of imports of Fairfield.

Brown Wrote to President Outlining Critical Steps White House can Take Now to Address Shortage of Personal Protective Equipment

 U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) hosted a news conference call to discuss his plan for addressing the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) needed by healthcare workers on the frontline of keeping Americans healthy and safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

This weekend, Brown wrote to President Trump outlining several steps the Administration should take immediately to address the shortage and ramp up manufacturing of these critical medical supplies.

In his plan and in his letter to the President, Brown lists nine steps the Administration could take immediately, including:

1. Designate a government official who can serve as a point person responsible for coordination the acquisition and development of PPE, medical devices, and other supplies necessary to fight the coronavirus pandemic. 
2. Establish a PPE and medical device assessment and database to monitor the supply and anticipated needs for PPE, ventilators, diagnostic test kits, and other needed medical supplies to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. 
3. Publish a list of PPE, medical device, and general medical supply needs to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. 
4. Establish a hotline capable of handling significant call capacity that will provide U.S. producers centralized information about the results of the national assessment and the current need for PPE, devices, and other health care supplies. 
5. Provide immediate funding to manufacturers to purchase equipment, retool machinery, hire additional workers, and cover any other expenses needed to increase production of PPE and necessary medical devices and supplies.
6. Streamline contract and certification procedures to ensure production and delivery of materials are not delayed due to paperwork constraints.
7. Provide critical protections for workers who are making PPE, medical devices, and necessary supplies to receive a waiver from any shelter-in-place requirements to allow workers to volunteer to go to work in these critical industries. 
8. Provide purchase guarantees and delivery assistance of product to the communities and health care facilities that need the products most. 
9. Support companies that have the capacity to sterilize reusable equipment to alleviate the existing PPE shortage. 

In his plan, Brown also pointed out important legislative actions that will help ramp up production of these critical supplies, including expanding the strategic national stockpile authority, substantially increasing Defense Production Act funding and strengthening domestic preferences.

Coalition of Iconic American Apparel Brands & Textile Companies Heeds Call of Nation to Produce Medical Face Masks

A coalition of iconic American apparel brands and textile companies, responding to the urgent call of the White House for medical supplies, have come together to build a supply chain virtually overnight and fast-track the manufacturing of medical face masks to help hospitals, health care workers and citizens battling the spread of the COVID-19 disease.

Parkdale Inc.-- the largest yarn spinner in the U.S. headquartered in North Carolina—helped lead the effort to build the coalition with Hanesbrands, Fruit of the Loom and six other companies to set up a manufacturing supply chain and begin ramping up production of the masks.

The coalition consists of iconic American brands such as Hanesbrands and Fruit of the Loom, often competitors in the marketplace, who are banding together for the greater good of a nation facing one if its most monumental challenges.

American Giant, Los Angeles Apparel, AST Sportswear, Sanmar, America Knits, Beverly Knits and Riegel Linen are also part of the coalition working tirelessly to respond to a national emergency in the nation’s time of need.

Dr. Peter Navarro, assistant to the President and director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, worked with the coalition and helped expedite the production of these masks. The first face masks have been approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The companies expect to begin production on Monday and will make the first deliveries by mid-week.

They are dedicating their assets, resources and manufacturing capacities to create a high output of facemasks. Once fully ramped up in four to five weeks, the companies expect to produce up to 10 million facemasks per week in the United States and in Central America.

If companies are interested in dedicating resources to help the cause, please reach out to the National Council of Textile Organizations at kellis@ncto.org

NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers, including artificial and synthetic filament and fiber producers.
 

• U.S. employment in the textile supply chain was 594,147 in 2018.  
• The value of shipments for U.S. textiles and apparel was $76.8 billion in 2018.  
• U.S. exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $30.1 billion in 2018.  
• Capital expenditures for textile and apparel production totaled $2.0 billion in 2017, the last year for which data is available.

The U.S. textile and nonwoven associations NCTO, IFAL and INDA issued a joint statement today urging federal, state and local governments to deem textile and nonwoven manufacturing facilities as “essential” when drafting “Shelter in Place” orders in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

The associations recognize the serious challenges of the elected officials, health administrators and others are facing when issuing orders to protect communities across the country and show understanding for the necessity to enforce quarantine orders.

The members of these associations are part of the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical nonwoven/textile supplies, including surgical gowns, face masks, antibacterial wipes, lab coats, blood pressure cuffs, cotton swabs and hazmat suits. These items are vital to the government’s effort to ramp up emergency production of these critical supplies.
If workers who produce these goods are not granted an “essential” exemption from “Shelter in Place” and other quarantine orders to go to their manufacturing and distribution facilities, it will cause major disruptions in the availability of these goods, states the association. This will create hardship to healthcare providers and consumers across the country who depend on steady and stable supplies of these critical items, says the NCTO.

NCTO Supports Administration’s Proposals on Economic Stimulus in Coronavirus Response; Rejects Importer Attempts to Remove China 301 Tariffs on Finished Products

The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), representing the full spectrum U.S. textiles from fiber through finished sewn products, issued a statement today welcoming the Trump administration’s proposals on an economic stimulus package to gird the economy against the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. But the organization urged officials to reject any attempts by importers to remove China 301 tariffs on finished products as part of any relief package.

“The president has outlined the need for a broad economic stimulus package that would include various tax incentives to help impacted industries and workers. We support the administration’s efforts to bolster the economy as a response to the coronavirus outbreak, while opposing add-ons to any stimulus package designed to exploit the crisis,” said NCTO President and CEO Kim Glas.

As part of a Phase One deal with China, the administration reduced duties on finished apparel and textile products implemented on Sept.1 from 15 percent to 7.5 percent.

Finished apparel, home furnishings and other made-up textile goods equate to 93.5 percent of U.S. imports from China in the sector; while fiber, yarn, and fabric imports from China only represent 6.5 percent, according to government data.