Battelle has developed a system that it says will sanitize as many as 160,000 used face masks a day in Ohio, which would ease the shortage for health-care workers during this pandemic because the masks could be reused rather than discarded.

“This would significantly and very, very quickly boost our capacity,” DeWine said. “It really is truly a matter of life and death. We need to protect our people who are risking their lives.”

Two machines are to be used in Ohio, and others would be sent to hospitals in New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C., DeWine said.