A new personal protection equipment plant is
opening soon in Rockland County with plans to hire 100 new employees.
A manufacturer called NY Critical Materials, a
subsidiary of New Jersey-based Hudson Holdings Group, just announced plans to
open in Pearl River, at the same campus where Pfizer's successful research for
the COVID-19 vaccine took place.
The company was established in response to the
pandemic and the demand for American-made PPE. The company received a $750,000
grant from the state to produce safety equipment.
“When you look at
the confluence of it, it's amazing. Pfizer being the first on the market making
Rockland proud in creating the vaccine, and now making N95 masks,”
says Rockland County Executive Ed Day.
The facility at the New York Center for Innovation
plans to make 2 million to 3 million N-95 face masks every day. These would be
manufacturing jobs like line workers, staff supervision and managerial
personnel.
It's expected to be a huge economic and safety
boost for the entire Hudson Valley area. "Our unemployment rate really has
been coming down quite considerably, and it's recovering to the pre-pandemic
rate, which is 3.5%. We were 6.4% in February and 5.8% in March,” says Day.
Russ Gerson, senior advisor for NY Critical
Materials, tells News 12 they're also looking to quickly expand into other
medical-grade products that are historically manufactured in China and bringing
much-needed American jobs right into the Hudson Valley. "Having the
ability to access product on the ground for the users, the hospitals and
nursing homes, the facilities that need medical-grade masks, so we believe that
the need for a N-95 is going too far exceed the period of the pandemic."
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held later
this year.