Hospitals and other health care practices are in desperate need of masks to help protect against the coronavirus. 

With a donation of more than 100 N95 protective masks, Manitoba Corporation is doing what they can to support their communities in Erie and Monroe Counties. 

"Health care workers need all the help they can get, I can't imagine what they're going through right now and we want to provide them with the healthiest options possible,” said Adam Shine, vice president of Manitoba Corporation.

Being a recycling company, they have access to certain masks that most businesses don't. When it was noticed that there was plenty of overstock, that's when Shine took to Twitter to show what he had available. He tweeted Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz saying, “We have some N95 masks (approx 70) we would like to donate. Who should I contact to facilitiate?”

Shine says Poloncarz responded immediately saying “Thank you very much! Please call our covid-19 hotline at 716-858-2929. They will take the information down and someone from ECODH will get back in touch.”

Shine also says he has noticed that there are a lot of people that are using masks over and over. He says, what that does is break down the protective layer inside the mask which makes people more susceptible to germs. He says the donation will also help those that are using makeshift masks.

"I can't think of anything worse a bandanna or something like that, they're using masks that are homemade, it’s not safe,” said Shine. 

Officials from Manitoba say if they are able to get more masks they will donate to health care workers as often as they can. Other organizations like Habitat for Humanity are also stepping up to help. They donated 20,000 masks to Kaleida Health. 

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