Honeywell International Inc. is closing two N95 mask production facilities that were hurriedly set up last year to accommodate a boom in demand fueled by Covid-19.

According to Eric Krantz, a Honeywell spokesman, the shutdowns will affect around 470 workers in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and another 700 in Phoenix, and come after numerous states repealed mask regulations and immunizations have given more individuals confidence to forego facial coverings.

Krantz stated, “We are currently seeing a huge decline in demand for N95s.”

He stated that production will continue in the company's new, more efficient, and automated N95 mask factory in Chandler, Arizona.

The Smithfield and Phoenix factories were among the first Honeywell opened last year to expand N95 manufacturing in response to a scarcity of personal protection equipment as Covid-19 spread across the United States.