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Covid Manufacturing Fund wrap up: 30,000+ face shields produced

We want to say a huge thank everyone who has donated to our Covid Manufacturing Fund. Weโ€™re proud to say weโ€™ve managed to hit and exceeded our milestone, raising over $30,000 to produce more than 30,000 face shields to protect frontline medical staff.

Written by Tess Roberts

Just over two months ago, we launched The Covid Manufacturing Fund. With this initiative, we hoped to help the current global pandemic by leveraging our distributed network of manufacturing partners to produce face shields for frontline medical staff.

covid face shields in production
The protective face shields being manufactured and prepared for being sent off to hospitals in need

Less than twelve hours in, the fund had raised over $18,000. An immediate hit, with contributors eager to donate to a cause which has a direct, and almost immediate, positive impact on the worldโ€™s hard-working medical staff.

These face shields have reached these medical facilities:

๐ŸŒ 13,000 shields to Amref, Africa
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ 250 shields to DonatePPE, US
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฎ 500 shields to Splosna bolnisnica Novo mesto, Slovenia
๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ 500 shields to Marie Curie Hospital, Scotland
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท 250 shields to Centre Hospitalier, France
๐Ÿ‡ฝ๐Ÿ‡ฐ 250 shields to Clinical University Hospital, Kosovo
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฑ 250 shields to University Hospital Center, Albania
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ท 250 shields to National Universities, Argentina
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ 250 shields to Multiple Hospitals in Chennai, India
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡บ 250 shields to Coviva, Luxembourg
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ 250 shields to The Northern Hospital, Australia
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ 250 shields to local pharmacies in Ontario, Canada
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง 250 shields to Kent and Medway NHS, UK
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง 250 shields to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS, UK
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง 250 shields to Basingstoke Hospital, UK
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ 500 shields to Good Samaritan Hospital, US
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ 1,000 shields to Swedish Covenant Hospital, US
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ 1,500 shields to Make4Covid, US

covid face shields worn by frontline medical staff in Albania
One batch of face shields sent to Albania

Designed to help organizations and hospitals strapped for resources, 100% of the fundโ€™s donations were used to manufacture and ship these protective masks for free to non-profit organizations.

Searching for the fastest and most cost effective solution

But simply churning out face shields wasnโ€™t the end for us, as we aimed to use every dollar donated to benefit as many medical workers as possible. Working closely with mechanical engineers and our manufacturing partner network, we switched to an optimized design of the face shield to make production faster and more cost effective.

The simplified PET foil design costs around $2 per face shield to produce and ship, slashing the original cost in half. With these changes, we were able to supply medical facilities with these face shields in batches of 500 at $1000 per batch.

covid face shields worn by frontline medical staff in Albania
The simplified face shield design Protolabs Network is currently supplying frontline medical staff

The Covid Manufacturing Fund has raised more than $30,000 to supply medical workers with over 30,000 face shields globally. You can see where each batch of face shields is delivered on our GoFundMe page.

Time to wrap up

Itโ€™s been incredibly rewarding to see the impact of setting up such a fund can have in times of crisis. Weโ€™ve also been amazed at how quickly and effectively our global manufacturing partners have come together and prioritized these face shield orders to help people in need.

Prusa face shields

However, as the new demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has started to even out with supply, we feel the purpose of the fund has been fulfilled. Weโ€™d now like to encourage those who want to fight against Covid to support other causes, such as vaccine research.

If you have any questions about our Covid Manufacturing Fund, please contact us on covid@hubs.com.