With Los Angeles-area hospitals burning through millions of N95 masks during the coronavirus crisis, the city has struck a deal with Honeywell International Inc. to manufacture 24 million of the respirators for the city's stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE).
The masks will be manufactured at a Honeywell plant in Phoenix. Production will start next month and continue for two years, with the first 100,000 masks to be delivered in May, scaling up to 500,000 per month by July and 1.2 million by November.
Under the agreement, the city of Los Angeles will pay 79 cents per mask, plus tax, and distribute the masks at cost to hospitals and health care providers.
Los Angeles will not pay for the masks upfront but as they come off the production line, with purchase orders initiating that production.
