| AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File |
Six U.S. companies will spend at least $350 million to manufacture medical gowns to store in the Strategic National Stockpile, years after doctors and nurses working in hospitals found themselves without the equipment while COVID-19 raged.
The purchase of the gowns is one of the final steps toward shoring up the personal protective equipment in the stockpile after it was depleted just weeks into the COVID pandemic. Equipment had not been regularly restocked in the years before the crisis began.
The new gowns are among the many purchases the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response has made in recent years to restock the emergency coffers, assistant secretary Dawn O’Connell said.
The administration wants to “make sure the country would never be caught in the same position they were in 2020, when the stockpile was opened on one of our worst days, one of our worst months, and people couldn’t find what they needed in it,” O’Connell said.
A range of U.S. companies were selected to manufacture the gowns, including a California lacrosse equipment maker and a New York embroidery studio. --->READ MORE HERE
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| BBC |
A Devon nursing home where seven people died after contracting Covid-19 was "left with no choice" but to ask to a staff member with the virus to work because of staff shortages, an inquest heard.
The hearing comes following the deaths of William Wilkinson, 102, Doris Lockett, 92, Roy Gilliam, 96, Jean Hartley, 81, Susan Skinner, 70, Ronald Bampfylde, 92, and Stanislawa Koch, 93.
Evidence was presented to Alison Longhorn at Exeter Coroner’s Court after the residents of Holmesley Care Home in Sidford died between March and April 2021.
The home's owner, Will Neal, told the hearing he "felt uneasy" about the decision made by manager Joanne Burchell. The inquest continues.
'Shell-shocked'
"I felt very uneasy about this, but I was not on the ground and Joanne Burchell had to make the very hard choice between the real dangers, possibly choking or falling, on one hand, and Covid exposure on the other," he said.
"With two people who were already Covid-positive, she felt that seemed like the less risk.
"I was quite shell-shocked by the conversation because it was very, very difficult. She made the decision she made in the best interests and overall safety of the residents. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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