More than 41 million medical-grade gloves sitting in a government warehouse are now being shipped to healthcare workers across the country after Rep. Christopher Smith (R-Hamilton) convinced the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to release them.

The gloves have been sitting in a customs warehouse since September and were released less than 24 hours after Smith became involved.

“Amidst the national emergency to combat the COVID-19, CBP had been holding the gloves for many months, and it took dozens of calls to numerous different federal officials,” Smith said. “It was just too important to give up on.”

Smith credited Englishtown councilman Greg Wojyn with connecting him with Ansell, an Australian-based medical glove manufacturer.

“At this critical juncture, when supplies of personal protective equipment—PPE—are scarce and medical professionals need to be safeguarded from the coronavirus, we needed to act quickly and work with federal officials to get 41.3 million medical examination gloves released by CBP and into the communities across the country where they are desperately needed,” Smith said.

The 20-term congressman said than Ansell promised him that many of the gloves will make their way to New Jersey, which has had the second-highest number of reported novel coronavirus deaths in the nation.

“Ansell is thankful for the efforts of Congressman Chris Smith and others to expedite the release of 40 million medical gloves into the United States,” said Renae Leary, the chief commercial officer Americas. “During this pandemic, the lack of personal protective