Critical shortages prompted companies to ration, clean and reuse disposable equipment.
Apr 23rd, 2021
In this Friday, May 8, 2020 file photo, a respiratory therapist pulls on a second mask over her N95 mask before adding a face shield as she gets ready to go into a patient's room in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Seattle. Medical providers may soon return to using one medical N95 mask per patient, a practice that was suspended during the pandemic due to deadly supply shortages.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
The Biden administration has taken the first step toward ending an emergency exception that allowed hospitals to ration and reuse N95 medical masks, the first line of defense between frontline workers and the deadly coronavirus.