The COVID-19 pandemic has presented TRSA and its members with unique challenges, but it’s also created opportunities to gain a competitive edge. The increased public awareness and understanding of textiles as “hygienically clean” has boosted demand for Hygienically Clean Certifications, particularly in the food service and hospitality sectors. Plant inspections are required to achieve certification. However, pandemic-related limitations on travel have made such inspections difficult to perform on-site. In response, TRSA is introducing a virtual inspection program!

When COVID-19 struck, starting in March, it set off a scramble among hospitals nationwide that soon exhausted their supplies of disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) – mainly imported from the Far East. NOVO Health Services LLC, a regional laundry group based in Atlanta, responded by converting PPE intended for surgery centers for use as nonsterile reusable barrier gowns by hospitals, according to a recent news report from Chattanooga-based WDEF-TV, a CBS affiliate.

Kannegiesser ETECH recently outlined the new procedures that the company has put in place at its facilities in Minneapolis and Grand Prairie, TX, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest TRSA Business Pulse Survey of operator members closed on May 18. A total of 84 operators responded to the third edition of the survey.

Texcare International recently was postponed and will now take place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from Nov. 27 through Dec. 1, 2021. Due to the economic situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the uncertainty of travel restrictions, Messe Frankfurt decided to postpone the trade show jointly with the German Textile Cleaning Association and the VDMA Textile Care, Fabric and Leather Technologies, according to a news release.

As restaurants reopen, various stakeholders including TRSA, laundry operators and suppliers, restaurant associations and restaurateurs are helping to guide policymakers in ways that can speed a recovery from COVID-19-induced closures. That was a key takeaway from TRSA’s latest Weekly Industry Update on May 28.

Cailin Birch, a global economist for The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and EIU Consultant Vaibhav Sahgal recently presented “North America: Economic Implications of COVID-19 and Demand Sector Outlooks,” the first in TRSA’s series of Business Recovery webinars sponsored by Kannegiesser ETECH. As uncertainty about COVID-19 persists, financial markets worldwide have declined and there are signs that the true impact of the virus is moving from the financial markets to the global economy.

On May 19, TRSA hosted a series of virtual Zoom CEO/Executive Roundtable meetings with associate members to facilitate information sharing among supplier partners to the linen, uniform and facilities services industry. Facilitated by TRSA President & CEO Joseph Ricci, participants were invited to engage in one of three sessions, limited to 15 people per session.

Access two TRSA.org webpages including documents and an animation to promote linen, uniform and facility services to restaurants in dining room reopening as COVID-19 shutdown orders ease.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (H.R. 7010) overwhelmingly by a vote of 417-1. The legislation, which was updated late Wednesday, would make a number of changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as enacted under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.