Personal protective equipment becomes scarce at Bay Area hospitals
TAMPA, Fla. - They need gowns, masks and face shields to protect them from contracting COVID-19 but healthcare workers across the nation are realizing they’re in short supply.
“There’s a worldwide crush on these things because of this virus,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Speaking in Central Florida Monday morning, DeSantis said the sunshine state should see scores of the N-95 masks coming in as little as 24 hours.
“We’re going to have huge amounts of supplies coming in on N-95 masks over the next few days,” he said.
Jared Moskowitz leads the state’s emergency management and says they’re in constant contact with hospitals when it comes the amount of available personal protection equipment, or PPEs.
MORE: Four more deaths reported as coronavirus cases in Florida hit 1,227
“We’re constantly getting rolls from the hospitals, as far as how many days left of PPE, what their daily burn rate is, so we can keep them ahead of any emergency situation,” he said.
In our area, Sarasota Memorial Hospital tells us there are concerns, but they’re doing alright.
“We’re doing what we can to conserve,” said Public Relations Manager Kim Savage. “We have a variety of masks, shields, hoods, and eye protection, gowns, and gloves. So far we have not run short.”
While there are workers around the US re-using masks, savage says, that’s not the case at her hospital.
“We’re saving our shields, so in the future if we need to reuse them we can, but no, we’re not reusing masks,” Savage said.
Tampa General Hospital is also providing information on their shortages.
They say in some cases, if certain items are in short supply, their teams will adjust and use different brands of equipment, and that their normal eye protection gear is in short supply nationwide.
READ: Bradenton company starts producing face masks by the thousands
As for ventilators, Dr. Nishant Anand, the Chief Medical Officer at Baycare Health System says, they brought in their inventory of disaster ventilators… an extra supply they have in case of hurricanes.
“We’re using about 15 percent of our total capacity of ventilators right now, so just to give large numbers, that gives it a large capacity,” he said.
And for the community sewing masks to help with shortages, Dr. Anand says the generosity is appreciated but...
“We wouldn’t want to use that in a high-risk person who’s been infected with COVID-19, because if it’s a cloth fabric, they may end up getting infected, especially if that gets wet,” said Dr. Anand.
He says because their PPE is so specialized, most of it has to come directly from the medical supplier.
If you feel sick:
The Florida Department of Health has opened a COVID-19 Call Center at 1-866-779-6121. Agents will answer questions around the clock. Questions may also be emailed to covid-19@flhealth.gov. Email responses will be sent during call center hours.
LINK: Florida's COVID-19 website
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