Rising cases put strain on masks

A renewed surge in coronavirus cases across the US is undermining efforts to bolster supplies of medical masks.

The renewed surge in coronavirus cases across much of the US is undermining efforts hospitals and manufacturers made in recent months to provide enough N95 masks to frontline workers.

Paramedics and healthcare workers from California to Florida are using more personal protection gear and N95s — which block 95 per cent of tiny particles, including droplets containing the virus — as hospitalisation related to COVID-19 climbs.

At the same time, as restrictions on business have been lifted, factories and construction sites are getting back to work, adding demand from workers that wear N95 masks to protect against noxious fumes and compounds.

The supply picture varies drastically from state to state.

Many local officials have made progress in stocking up since the early days of the pandemic and hospitals are also building up stockpiles. Michigan said that as of Thursday, 20 per cent of its hospitals had less than a seven-day supply for some types of medical equipment and 6 per cent had less than a 15-day supply of N95s.

Virginia’s emergency management department said in response to a records request from The Wall Street Journal that it had about 500,000 N95s and 3.5 million masks that conform with a similar Chinese standard, KN95. Vermont’s department of public safety had 133,000 N95s and 969,000 KN95s as of June 18. North Carolina’s emergency management department had 3.8 million N95s and about 2 million KN95s.

Hospital and healthcare supply executives said they have been able to get masks more readily since manufacturers including 3M and Prestige Ameritech have ramped up production. But demand continues to outstrip the growing supply, they said. “It’s still bad,” said Cathy Denning, head of sourcing operations for Vizient, which contracts for medical supplies on behalf of hospitals.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated earlier this month that demand for N95s in the US would outstrip production and imports through August. Distributors continue to cap how much protective gear each customer can order and report extensive back-orders of N95s and other equipment, healthcare supply executives said.

Now hospitals treating fresh waves of coronavirus patients are facing new pressure on their stockpiles. Many hospitals have resumed procedures that had been halted for weeks, using up additional inventory of masks, gowns and gloves.

Premier, a purchasing group for hospitals, said half of more than 1000 hospitals surveyed through mid-June reported they couldn’t get enough N95 masks to resume postponed surgeries.

Many health facilities are still following federal guidelines to extend the lifespan of their masks. Workers in some hospitals are wearing a single mask for an entire shift instead of donning a new mask to treat each patient, standard practice in normal times.

Pioneer Health Group in Arizona is one of 15 per cent of nursing homes nationwide that has less than a seven-day supply of N95s, according to the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid.

The nearly 500 employees at Pioneer Health’s two aged-care facilities are given one new N95 each week and one surgical mask each day, to wear over the N95.

“We would not have enough for one week if we were using it for how it was intended to be used,” said Amy Malkin, Pioneer Health’s chief operating officer.

Masks are also being sent through decontamination systems, which the Food and Drug Administration has authorised as an emergency tool. Some healthcare workers have raised concerns about such systems.

Texas sent more than 5000 N95s through a decontamination system in the past week, according to the state’s Division of Emergency Management. The state has more than 47 million masks of all types in its stockpile and continues to order more, said agency spokesman Seth Christensen. The agency is aware that hospitals continue to ration masks, he said. “Conservation measures are great to ensure we are not wasteful at a time when the supply chain is not fully recovered,” Mr Christensen said.

Texas had placed orders for $US1bn in personal protective equipment on June 7, but has cancelled more than half of that amount because suppliers failed to deliver or delivered products that didn’t pass quality inspection.

Some hospitals have found new mask suppliers, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles. Cedars-Sinai is burning through N95 masks more quickly since resuming surgery, a spokesman said, but has months of protective equipment in its inventory and is working with Los Angeles County to create a public stockpile.