Micron

China now makes 200 million face masks a day — more than twenty times the amount it made at the start of February. The leap has been spurred by the outbreak of a new coronavirus. The masks include the lightweight ones that people like to wear in the hope of protection against coronavirus as well as the heavy-duty N95 masks used by health-care workers. GOATS AND SODA Face Masks: What Doctors Say About Their Role In Containing Coronavirus But that's still not nearly enough to meet local demands as well as global orders. So a scramble is now underway in...

Hospital workers in Washington state have been making protective medical gear out of office supplies and other run-of-the-mill materials as they deal with a severe shortage of equipment needed to care for patients who may have Covid-19. Among the supplies coming in handy: clear vinyl sheets. “We are very close to being out of face shields,” said Becca Bartles, executive director of infection prevention at Providence St. Joseph Health, a 51-hospital system. “Masks, we’re probably a couple of days away” from running out, she said.To buy time, Providence infection control and quality experts designed prototype face-shields with off-the-shelf materials: marine-grade vinyl,...

THE METASTASIZING CORONAVIRUS outbreak in the United States has left health care providers and government officials facing a humbling reality as they scramble to procure medical gear that is key to containing the pandemic: On the global market for medical gear, America is just another buyer on a long list. After weeks of dragging its feet, the Trump administration has deployed the Defense Production Act to plug gaps in the supply of the masks, gowns, and face shields supposed to protect health care workers and keep hospitals up and running. But a review of government pandemic preparedness documents, and interviews with emergency medicine specialists and...