Today, the Department of Defense, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, signed contracts with a maximum value of $136 million with five American businesses to manufacture up to 15 million Covid-19 reusable isolation gowns for the replenishment of the HHS-managed Strategic National Stockpile.
Delivery of the gowns will be complete by January 2021 ensuring HHS is poised to meet the Nation’s critical medical needs.
Today’s contract awards, along with additional planned US-sourced gown contracts, will boost the domestic industrial base for textiles and reduce dependency on foreign sources for critical personal protective items. There was robust competition for the contracts, which were executed by the Defense Logistics Agency.
All of the gowns procured adhere to the Berry Amendment, an acquisition regulation that requires DOD to give preference to domestically produced clothing and textiles. All of the contract awardees are American small businesses, with the largest portion of the quantities going to a woman-owned small business.