PNNL and Hanford join in fight against deadly coronavirus outbreak

Thousands of protective suits from the Tri-City area are being shipped overseas to help with the response to the coronavirus.

The Department of Health and Human Services has spearheaded an effort to collect as many of the Tyvek suits as possible, and hit the jackpot at the Hanford nuclear reservation and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

A total of 18,000 of the protective suits were paid for by the Department of Energy and awaiting use by workers at the Hanford site and PNNL.

Storekeepers, teamsters and traffic specialists helped collect 54 pallets of the suits, with the first shipment expected to arrive in Dallas, Texas, this week. They then will be sent overseas.

A second truckload was expected to be sent this week.

Health and Human Services will reimburse the cost of collecting the suits.

“This is an incredible example of the Hanford community coming together to support a cause of global importance,” said John Eschenberg, president of Hanford tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions. “Our thoughts and prayers accompany the suits we’re sending in support of the coronavirus outbreak.”

The coronavirus has killed more than 1,100 people and infected more than 45,000, most of them in China.