Two Long Island firms get grants for virus testing and producing PPE

Two Long Island companies have been awarded state funds for their work in battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medford-based Chembio Diagnostic Systems received $1 million from Empire State Development to support the company’s production of COVID-19 tests, hiring and training employees, purchasing of materials and expansion of injection molding tooling capacity, according to an ESD statement.

Autronic Plastics, a Central Islip-based manufacturer that also does businesses as Clear-Vu Medical, gets $80,000 for manufacturing face shields. The company plans to invest over $200,000 for production and is already in contract to produce 6 million face shields per year with capacity to more than double that. Clear-Vu face shields have already been provided to more than a dozen healthcare organizations, first responders, and medical distributors.

The money is part of $4 million that ESD has awarded to eight companies around the state that have retooled their business lines and pivoted to manufacture vital supplies for ongoing response and recovery efforts.