LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — As the city announced its seventh COVID-19-related death, Mayor Linda Gorton made a plea to local business owners; she needs any and all personal protective equipment you can spare. If you can make some, even better.
“I am fighting for Lexington. That’s my job every day. But it has never before been more important than it is right now. Now it’s a matter, literally, of life and death,” Gorton said during a Monday morning press conference one floor above her downtown office.
Gorton is hopeful her message will reach those who own or work in industries that require employees to wear masks and gowns. She also took it one step further.
"Turn your production to making some of this, and if you can, we can connect them with the specification,” she said, aiming that request to anyone who runs a manufacturing plant of some kind.
Gorton is a former nurse, who maintains her license. Her knowledge, and her ability to decipher exactly what experts are predicting, are keeping her in a proactive mode to limit the spread of the virus across Lexington.
“This is in anticipation,” Gorton said of a likely spike in positive cases across Lexington over the next two weeks. “They will need the PPE,” referring to the Nutter Field House at UK, which has been turned into a field hospital with roughly 400 beds.
Gorton isn’t about to be picky when donations are offered.
“Any kind of business that might have this stockpile. We are asking them to look at what they have and might be willing to donate,” she said.
Gorton in the middle of a 12-round heavyweight bout for the city, and needs a little help in her corner.
*If you can donate/manufacture PPE, you’re asked to call; 311, or 859-258-3100.
