Niagara health officials are praising Brock University after the institution donated a large number of supplies for frontline staff to use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The university filled a truck with thousands of gloves, hundreds of lab coats and goggles, cartons of face masks on Tuesday.

The personal protective equipment (PPE) will be distributed to front-line health workers at the region’s hospitals.

Dawn Zinga, Brock’s Acting Associate Vice-President, Research was tasked with heading up the project.

“A lot of it is, people feel the need to be part of the solution and do something,” said Zinga in a news release.

The donated items came from a wide range of faculties and departments such as research labs and services, teaching labs, science stores, the electronics shop, and the campus store.

In total, more than 29,000 individual disposable gloves, 341 pairs of safety glasses, 1,082 lab coat, 15 stethoscopes and 250 face masks were sent off to be distributed to healthcare workers.

“We are extremely grateful to Brock University for this remarkable show of support and generosity,” said Niagara Health President Lynn Guerriero in a news release. “We have always valued our strong partnership with Brock University, and this is another example of that. These donations will help as our health-care team responds to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The university says a limited number of people were involved with the project in order to limit the risk to front-line staff.

“It’s all about controlling the exposure to the supplies,” said Zinga. “It has been noticeable how conscious people are in not affecting those supplies because the last thing you want to do is cause more risk.”

The Niagara Health Foundation is focusing on securing protective equipment and raising funds to purchase additional needed equipment to support frontline workers.

Roger Ali, President and CEO of the Niagara Health Foundation said he was “deeply grateful” for the university’s donation and support.

“It is at times like this that Niagara is so fortunate to have a world-class institution stepping up to supply our front-line heroes with the critical protective equipment they need,” said Ali. “These items will truly support the health-care professionals as they treat our friends, neighbours and loved ones.”