American materials and ingredients firm DuPont is working to increase production of Tyvek, a material used in protective garments worn by healthcare workers to treat patients with the novel coronavirus COVID-19, at nine DuPont Safety plants across its global footprint, the company said in a recent release.

“Thousands of DuPont employees are working around the clock in all parts of the world to increase capacity of protective garments during this time of high demand,” the company said in the statement. “Our Tyvek manufacturing operations run 24 hours a day and the nine global manufacturing facilities that produce garments are also working overtime to increase capacity.”

The Associated Press (AP) reported Saturday that one of the plants increasing Tyvek capacity is located in Richmond, VA. DuPont told the news organization that production of the material is up by about 20% this year due to pandemic-driven demand. 

DuPont is currently capable of manufacturing about 200 million Tyvek protective garments each year, a company official told AP. 

Known as the “Spruance plant,” DuPont’s facility in Richmond is its largest manufacturing site in the world, according to information on the firm’s website. The plant currently has a headcount of about 2000 workers. 

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