COLUMBUS, OHIO, April 30 (WNM/USA Today/Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security) - A new decontamination system developed by Battelle is now operating in multiple cities across the United States (https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/04/29/coronavirus-ohio-company-cleaning-millions-n-95-masks-hospitals/3044072001/). Over the past month, the system received US FDA authorization, and the company has deployed units in at least 7 states, with additional plans for others, including the Washington, DC area.

The decontamination system utilizes vaporized hydrogen peroxide to kill viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, in N95 respirators, and the process can be performed as many as 20 times per respirator (https://www.battelle.org/docs/default-source/commercial-offerings/industry-solutions/730_battelle-ccds-critical-care-decontamination-system-1.pdf).

Battelle announced in mid-April that a contract with the federal government would enable health systems to utilize the service free of charge (https://www.battelle.org/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-detail/battelle-ccds-critical-care-decontamination-system-services-now-available-at-no-charge).

Each unit has a capacity of 80,000 respirators per day, and the federal contract will fund as many as 60 sites, which could provide a total capacity of nearly 5 million respirators per day. This kind of service could substantially impact the availability of respirators, particularly as some states and health systems continue to struggle to obtain sufficient supply of personal protective equipment (PPE).