Santa Cruz County sending masks to local health care workers
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION) In an effort to help health care workers responding to the coronavirus pandemic, Santa Cruz County will be sending tens of thousands of masks for them to use.
The county has a stockpile of N95 masks, and it will be sending 27,000 of them to local health care facilities. It will be keeping 5% of its stockpile in case of future needs. The masks will be distributed at hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, federally qualified health care clinics and urgent care facilities, emergency medical responders and in-custody medical providers.
10,000 of the masks in the stockpile were recently donated by Facebook Inc.
Around the world, there are shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) due to responses to the pandemic and hoarding, including gowns and coveralls, goggles, face shields and respiratory masks.
The county stock may be depleted, but the State and federal government are working to provide more supplies. In the last week, the State of California started getting shipments from the national PPE stockpile and requested another 20 million N95 masks, 10 million surgical masks, 600,000 surgical gowns, 600,000 face shields, 600,000 gloves, 300,000 goggles and 100,000 coveralls.
The county is also working to create a drop-off site for institutions and community members who want to donate extra PPE. The county said information about that will be released this week.
