CLEVELAND – The Biden Administration has awarded a contract for $6.5 million to U.S. Cotton, the largest manufacturer of cotton swabs in the USA, to increase domestic production capability for polyester-tipped swabs for home testing kits and mass testing applications to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, U.S. Cotton, based in Cleveland, Ohio, has retooled operations to produce over 400 million testing kit swabs.

The US Department of Defense (DOD), in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced the award as part of the administration’s broader effort to increase domestic production capability for essential medical supplies.

U.S. Cotton will now increase its production capacity from 92 million polyester swab tips per month to approximately 371 million per month by May 2022. The DOD contract award was funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to support the domestic industry base expansion for critical medical resources.

“We are proud to be involved in a national effort to help deploy these testing kit swabs for the American people,” said president John Nims. “These swabs are designed to make it easier for people at home to self-administer coronavirus tests and will also be used for mass testing applications, which is critically important. We greatly appreciate the collaboration with DOD and HHS to ramp up essential capacity of polyester-based synthetic swabs that will help in the fight against the pandemic