Coronavirus: Ohio inmates sewing hospital gowns, cough masks

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Everything you need to know about coronavirus

Inmates at Allen Oakwood and the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville expect to ramp up to making 5,000 cough masks per day. The shops have enough material on hand to produce 80,000 masks and have ordered more material to crank out about 2 million masks.

Prisoners at Pickaway Correctional Institution south of Columbus have enough raw material on hand to produce 5,000 face shields.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction ordered 2,880 gallons of hand sanitizer for staff and inmates to use. Delivery is expected in early to mid-April — a month after Ohio’s first confirmed coronavirus case.

DETAILS: Stimulus checks: Social Security recipients don’t need to file tax returns

Ohio Penal Industries, which pays workers a small hourly wage, is working on a plan to buy components of hand sanitizer so it can be combined and distributed within the prisons. New York state prisoners began making hand sanitizer in early March.

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has 12,200 employees overseeing 48,700 inmates in 27 prisons. Keeping hands clean — a primary means of prevention — can be difficult behind bars. Former and current inmates report that alcohol-based hand sanitizer has long been prohibited inside prisons, and soap and paper towels are often hard to come by. Indigent inmates are issued two bars of soap a month while other prisoners can purchase soap from the commissary.

RELATED: What can small businesses do to survive COVID-19?

Three weeks ago, Ohio DRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith agreed to allow hand sanitizer inside the prisons in common areas, but not permit prisoners to keep it in their cells.

Ohio DRC also gave inmates and staff authorization to wear their own masks. Each prison has been given the go-ahead to make “cloth masks” if they have local supplies available and with any fabric they can procure.

An employee at Marion Correctional Institution tested positive for the coronavirus, which led to all 2,541 inmates being placed in quarantine. No inmates have yet tested positive, according to state data.