PPE

The federal government is no longer sending nursing homes disposable isolation gowns described in New Hampshire as useless garbage bags and instead is providing a different style, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The New Hampshire Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes, said this week that the bulk of the items sent by FEMA to…

Isolation gowns with no arm openings. Child-sized gloves. Surgical masks with ear loops that break when stretched. Such items make up the bulk of the personal protective equipment recently sent by the federal government to New Hampshire nursing homes struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, according to the head of an industry group who called the shipments “profoundly insulting.” “Legitimate personal…

Two New England senators are pressing the federal government to explain its plan to supply nursing homes with personal protective gear after reports surfaced that some equipment supplied by FEMA was inadequate or defective. In a letter sent last week to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Elizabeth Warren...

The Massachusetts Teachers Association is calling on the state to provide personal protective gear and testing at schools this fall for students and staff in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nurse Alice Benjamin provides tips for proper face mask wearing and answers some frequently asked questions, including how to make sure your mask fits and how often to clean it.

The New York Times reports how inventors from around the world are using their skills to create desperately needed PPE equipment for healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic.

As restaurants around the world look for ways to safely reopen, some restaurants in France are experimenting with plastic domes to help keep restaurant workers and diners healthy.

Rob Gronkowski may have joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but he’s still a Massachusetts resident, and on Friday he showed his gratitude to a pair of his local fire departments by donating personal protective equipment to them. He and his girlfriend, Camille Kostek, dropped off masks and face shields with the Walpole and Foxboro fire departments. And in classic...

Massachusetts lawmakers want to prohibit price gouging on essential products during the coronavirus pandemic and future public emergencies.   Hundreds of consumers have complained to the Massachusetts attorney general about businesses and online retailers jacking up the price of products, as the NBC10 Boston Investigators reported earlier in May.  As of Friday, a spokesperson with the attorney general’s office said it has...

President Donald Trump visited a Ford plant on Thursday to tour the automaker’s production of medical ventilators. Despite CDC and coronavirus task force guidelines, the president wore a mask briefly and away from the press pool, sayng, “I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it.”

President Donald Trump visited Allentown, Pa., Thursday to announce the Strategic National Stockpile 2.0, which would increase PPE supplies and ask private companies to store some of those supplies.

An email sent to U.S. Immunologist Dr. Rick Bright is something that made him “feel a pit in his stomach.”

A Portsmouth-based company donated several Walk-Up Docs, a booth that enhances safety while administering a coronavirus tests, to low-income areas. Trigger House, a New Hampshire marketing agency, switched gears trying to help in the fight against coronavirus and started making the Walk-Up Doc, which is designed so that the medical workers administering coronavirus tests don’t have to continuously change...

Administrators at a Colorado nursing home hard hit by COVID-19 say shipments of personal protective equipment needed to protect their staff were seized and redirected by the federal government. They are still waiting for an explanation.

Three Boeing Dreamlifter airplanes landed in North Charleston, South Carolina, to deliver personal protective equipment from China.

How often should you wash your mask? And what’s the best way to clean it? Nurse Alice Benjamin shares some best practices for wearing face masks.

A trio of Boston medical students is part of a network of thousands of health care professionals nationwide working to support hospitals, frontline workers and others battling the coronavirus pandemic.  The National Student Response Network has recruited more than 5,000 health care students to deliver personal protective equipment, groceries and other essential supplies. “Our goal is to really have a…

A shipment of personal protective equipment meant for a Massachusetts nonprofit that was missing for weeks has been located, but tracking it down was far from easy. Northeast Arc, a Danvers-based nonprofit that serves people with disabilities, says it shows just how difficult it is to secure supplies during the pandemic. The nonprofit partnered with 16 other organizations to order…

More than 110,000 pounds of personal protective equipment has landed in New Hampshire Thursday afternoon, thanks in part to inventor Dean Kamen. A FedEx cargo plane carrying about 4.5 million masks that will be sent both to hospitals in the Granite State and Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country has landed at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. The plane took off from…