Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ohio National Guard Reservists Help Collect And Distribute PPE To Ohio's Prisons

Dan Konik

The Ohio National Guard’s Military Reserve soldiers have been helping out at food banks, but they are also collecting and distributing personal protective equipment to people who need it. 

Ohio National Guard Reserve Private Nicholas Craig Wallace is one of the members helping the state collect PPE. And on this day in Columbus, he’s collecting and giving out masks for Ohio’s prisons.

“That includes 17,000 N-95 masks and roughly 44,000 dust masks," Wallace says.

Credit Dan Konik

The masks are being donated by companies and individuals. Hundreds of prison staff members and inmates have been infected with COVID-19, with major outbreaks forcing quarantines in more than half of Ohio’s 28 lockups. There have been at least three deaths and so many ill staff members at the Pickaway Correctional Institution that at least 30 members of the Ohio National Guard have been deployed to help.

Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment.