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Coronavirus overwhelms medical mask manufacturers

As Americans wait to learn if coronavirus will hit their home, a company in the Poconos has dramatically increased production of the material for medical mask.

Machines have been working 24/7 at Monadnock Non-Woven Media near Mount Pocono.

The company makes material needed for surgical masks, the same masks that are in high demand because of the coronavirus outbreak.

"Since January, we've seen an unbelievable increase in the demand for face mask media. I would say in percentage terms it's many hundreds of percent," said Keith Hayward, Monadnock Non-Woven Media.

The material is rolled into bales and shipped off to places all over the world.

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Keith Hayward is the managing director at the company in Coolbaugh Township. He says normally the company ships out one tractor-trailer load of mask material a month but since January, that hasn't been the case.

"What's happened is China stopped supplying the rest of the world. Now, the rest of the world can't get any of the media. Therefore, everyone is mass manufacturing both in China and North and South America and in Europe are now searching for this type of media. There are only a few people who make it, and luckily, we are one of them."

Just to give you an idea of how strong demand is, these are just a few order requests that came in overnight, totaling in about 450 tons of this stuff. Each one had to be turned away.

"We are running at the moment about four weeks ahead. After that, we are open to more production but the people we've already got, more than likely will be calling again for more," Hayward said.

Andrey Isakov works the day shift. he says it's all hands on deck.

"It has been a hassle, but we need to do our best just to keep it all going."

There are plans to add another machine to keep up with demand. More employees will also need to be hired.

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