US DoD awards $110m contract to Puritan for foam tip swabs

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded a $110m contract to manufacturer Puritan Medical Products for foam tip swabs.

The contract was awarded in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Under the contract, Puritan will procure necessary production equipment to increase domestic production of the swabs used in critical Covid-19 diagnostic tests.

As the global rise in coronavirus cases continues to impact diagnostic test manufacturers, the latest domestic industrial base expansion effort will help increase production capacity by 200 million foam tip swabs per month by September.

Production capacity expansion is part of the Pentagon’s efforts to support domestic Covid-19 testing.

Globally, the total confirmed cases of Covid-19 infections have reached more than 88 million, with over 1.9 million deaths.

The US, India and Brazil remain the top three most affected countries in the new year.

The effort was led by the DoD’s Defense Assisted Acquisition (DA2) Cell in coordination with the Department of the Air Force’s Acquisition Covid-19 Task Force (DAF ACT), on behalf of HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH).

Funding for the contract has been provided through the Health Care Enhancement Act (HCEA).

In June, FLIR Systems installed its EST screening system at the Pentagon Visitor Center in Washington, DC to continue the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.