Tennessee’s first round of 5 million face masks reached county health departments for distribution this week, but some people are questioning whether the material is up to snuff.
Gov. Bill Lee’s Unified Command group purchased the masks from Renfro Corp., a Mount Airy, N.C. global designer and distributor of legwear products with a manufacturing and distribution facility in Cleveland, Tennessee.
The Hamilton County Health Department received 14,760 free face coverings from the governor’s group on Wednesday, according to a health department spokesman. An estimated 10,000 of the masks had been sent to various locations for distribution as of 4 p.m. Thursday.
The masks are based on the design of the Nightingale mask, recently created in Winston-Salem, N.C., by a team of researchers and medical experts at Wake Forest Baptist Health.
Folks are picking up Gov Lee’s masks from the health dept. Package says not for medical use. A friend picked 1 up and said it looks like somebody cut a sock in half it’s very porous and I can see through it. It’s like trying to keep chipmunks out of your garden with chicken wire. pic.twitter.com/0VZnfc9X6f