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As a new strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) swept through the world in 2020, preparedness plans, masking policies and more public policy changed just as quickly. WVXU has covered the pandemic's impact on the Tri-State from the very beginning, when on March 3, 2020, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine barred spectators from attending the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus over concerns about the virus, even though Ohio had yet to confirm a single case of COVID-19.

FDA Grants Battelle Request To Sterilize 80,000 N-95 Masks Per Machine Per Day

The Statehouse News Bureau | By Karen Kasler

Published March 29, 2020 at 10:37 PM EDT

Battelle employees process N-95 masks in the Critical Care Decontamination System.

The Food and Drug Administration has given the go-ahead to Columbus-based Battelle for its full request to sterilize 80,000 N-95 surgical masks per machine per day, after issuing a letter earlier in the day permitting far less. And it comes after pressure from Ohio officials.

Ohio reported a total of 29 deaths from COVID-19 Sunday, up from 25 Saturday. And the state confirmed 1,653 cases of coronavirus, up 17% from the day before. 403 people have been hospitalized, 139 in intensive care. A total of 24,376 people have been tested.

Gov. Mike DeWine said he’d gotten the word early Sunday that the approval was just for 10,000 masks per machine per day. DeWine called that “reckless”, and called President Trump to push for more.

“We’re frantically trying to get enough of these masks, and we have a solution, at least for part of the problem, in that we can clean 80,000 of these every single day. Free us, let us go do it. And sometimes you just have to say it that way to get things moving," DeWine said.

DeWine said he wasn’t sure why the request had been limited to 10,000, but said bureaucracy could be the culprit.

“Sometimes you just have to rattle it. And that’s true with the bureaucracy anywhere. That’s the truth with bureaucracy in Columbus, in Ohio, it’s the same. Sometimes you just have to say, this is really important. And the reason it’s important is that we have to protect the people who are on the front line. We don’t have enough of these.”

Read more about the process here.

Though other governors have reported problems with Trump, Dewine praised him and later thanked him in a statement and on Twitter.

Thank you @realDonaldTrump and @SteveFDA! @US_FDA has now given Columbus-based @Battelle full approval of the use of new technology to sterilize desperately-needed N95 masks in #Ohio and other parts of the United States.— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) March 30, 2020

Battelle will be able to sterilize 160,000 masks each day with two machines in Ohio, and has machines to send to New York and Seattle.