New-Britain Based OKAY Industries is stepping up to help supply medical equipment for doctors and nurses.
The move comes after the company realized there was a need for more medical supplies across the country and inside the state.
The company is known to assemble and create medical devices and equipment. OKAY Industries is offering their engineering, manufacturing and supply-chain expertise to help with the development of the face shields.
"In times of a crisis like this, everybody rallies together," said Jason Howey, president and CEO of OKAY Industries. "I think people just want to generally help each other."
The company is a part of a partnership with the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain and the Consolidated School District of New Britain.
With the help of the partnership, OKAY Industries will work to create assemblies at New Britain High School. The face shields will be put together by a group of volunteers.
The company will provide volunteers with the right education to assemble the face shields. Another priority is social distancing while volunteers work to put together the personal protective equipment (PPE).
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The company is striving to provide at least 10,000 face shields for Hartford Health Care and 3,000-4,000 for New Britains Hospital for Special Care.
Prototypes must be approved by Hartford Healthcare before mass production and distribution.
"We want to make sure that we can actually do this correctly and they're actually approved by Hartford Healthcare," said Howey. "We just want to make sure the face shields are in proper working condition before supplying them to nurses and doctors."
Once the face shields are approved, OKAY Industries is looking to ship them out in a week.
