Special Supplies Will be Needed When Local Businesses Are Allowed to Reopen

STATEWIDE-- Many businesses will have to have some special supplies to be able to reopen. 

Indiana Sec. of Commerce Jim Schellinger tells Inside Indiana Business that he has a team working long hours to try to order masks and gloves.

"It's gonna be dependent upon one, safety, and two frankly the PPE supplies we have because most companies are gonna need PPE supplies and right now we're barely being able to get all the stuff we need for the hospitals and health care workers," he said.

PPE stands for personal protective equipment.

"The most important thing that we're gonna have to be able to do to come out of this completely is to have a great testing and tracing program. Every business is gonna need that," said Schellinger.

Businesses will need to be able to tell who has had contact with people with coronavirus, and to be able to find out which employees have it and who they have had contact with.

He said Gov. Holcomb is coordinating how Indiana reopens its economy with the governors of surrounding states, like Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan.

Schellinger said despite the pandemic, Indiana is actually doing well attracting businesses to the state, and that even factoring the pandemic into the economic situation, the state is adding thousands of jobs, with deals still being made.

"Businesses have a longer time frame that they look at. So, they're planning things out two years in advance."