BATON ROUGE – A distribution site on Plank Road created to to collect and deliver protective gear to area hospitals is starting to wind down.

The need for PPE is easing. But before closing up, those involved want to make sure everyone has the supplies they need.

“It's exciting to see this come to an end, because that means something is getting better,” said Yanet Raesu, an administrative fellow with the Baton Rouge Health District.

Back in March, the Health District set up the distribution site to help hospitals treating high numbers of COVID-19 patients receive the protective gear they needed. Businesses were able to drop off any extra supplies they had to the warehouse, which were then transported to those hospitals.

Since then, the initiative has reached a major milestone.

“We just passed our 100,000 mark. So since March, we’ve collected over 100,000 PPE,” Raesu said.

Now, with fewer COVID-19 patients hospitalized, the goal for the distribution site has shifted. The Health District is now focusing on smaller clinics and private practices making sure they're stocked up too.

“A lot of them did donate to us when we first started, because they weren't in operation. So now that they're ramping back up to those operations, they're in need of those supplies as well,” Raesu said.

Raesu says they’re hoping to end the operation at the end of June, but they still have 40,000 boxes of PPE to give out before then.

“Reach out to us and sign up so we can get rid of all of our inventory and make sure that it goes to good use,” Raesu said.

Medical practices in need can do that on the Baton Rouge Health District’s website.