As the PDX Airport and our marine terminals remain open during Governor Kate Brown’s COVID-19 “Stay Home, Save Lives” order – providing critical infrastructure for the region – our top priority has been the health and safety of all those who continue to show up for work.

We continue to evolve health and safety policies for our facilities and our workforce, always following the lead of local and federal public health experts. That includes a recent shift in early April. Following the guidance of the CDC and Multnomah County Public Health, all Port of Portland employees who had to report to job sites were required to wear face coverings.

We were clear with our employees: a cloth face covering is not meant to protect you from getting sick, but it’s a critical tool to help slow the spread of COVID-19. It reduces the risk of individuals spreading the virus to others, like coworkers or travelers coming through PDX. Growing evidence shows that many with COVID-19 have no symptoms, yet we can still spread it to others unknowingly.

Employees were eager to do what they could to protect community members.

But while demand was high for face coverings, supply was low. Just as our region has done since COVID-19 started to spread – when distilleries began producing hand sanitizer – local organizations stepped up to support workers who continue to report for duty.

In the last two weeks, we received 700 cloth face coverings the Port ordered from the local apparel store Garnish. Garnish shifted its focus from limited-edition apparel to face-covering production shop in the last few weeks – and owner Erica is able to keep three local seamstresses employed with the work.

As Erica shared with us, this work has kept her busy. “We typically make about 40 to 60 pieces a week. This week, we made 1,400! We’ve got things dialed now. We’re able to produce about 200 masks a day going forward.”