Congressman Bishop visits Plastek, criticizes Cooper’s COVID-19 response

HAMLET — Congressman Dan Bishop (NC-09) stopped by the Hamlet Plastek plant to check in on their production of personal protective equipment, their ability to continue operations under social distancing restrictions and address the state’s response to COVID-19.

Early on in the pandemic, Plastek developed a simple face shield to protect workers from contracting the virus which was being shipped to hospitals in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Since then, the company has donated them to local fire departments, funeral homes, hospice nurses, the VA office and other agencies in North Carolina. At their own plant, visitors must fill out a questionnaire, step on a sanitizing pad to clean the bottom of their feet, and suit up to protect their staff from the virus and the sound of the machinery.

Bishop commended Plastek for being a good “corporate citizen” by providing the masks to locals in need, as well as their ongoing partnership with Richmond Community College to train staff for long-term careers. He urged his colleagues in Congress to be “mindful of the burdens” imposed on industries like Plastek by this virus and to listen to their concerns.

“We need to be attentive to how we can create the regulatory environment and the tax environment … so businesses like this can thrive so that all those people working out there can continue to have jobs, earn a paycheck and put food on the table,” Bishop said.

As for Plastek’s regular production, Project Manager Jim Hermann said, “We haven’t missed a beat.”

Bishop, a Republican, has been critical of Governor Roy Cooper’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He pointed to what he called Cooper’s “wooden” approach that hasn’t been reactive to the places in the most need for attention: nursing homes, many of which have been hot spots for the virus.

“You see 65% of deaths coming out of senior housing facilities and I keep being told by nursing home operators repeatedly that other states are more engaged with senior housing facilities who have outbreaks in terms of getting testing done universally and quickly and having an intensive, on-site management process,” Bishop said.

Those states who are doing this correctly, he said, are Florida and Tennessee. The News & Observer reported Wednesday that North Carolina had more than 1,100 COVID-19 cases in nursing homes with 98 deaths. Florida has had significantly worse impacts at nursing homes with more than 1,500 COVID-19 deaths and thousands more cases at those facilities, according to the Miami Herald’s count as of Tuesday.

“It has been a serious problem and it needs to be corrected,” Bishop said. “I just want to see more enlightened active management of the problem from the administration in a way that will alleviate it without destroying our economy.”