Coronavirus

Coronavirus Pandemic: Bay Area hospitals in need of supply donations

ByJ.R. Stone KGO logo

Monday, March 23, 2020

Coronavirus Pandemic: Bay Area hospitals in need of supply donationsUCSF and Stanford Health Center are both now taking donations for Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, which is used in hospitals and at clinics.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- UCSF and Stanford Health Center are both now taking donations for Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, which is used in hospitals and at clinics.

Vivian Nguyen showed us a garage full of masks, gloves, and hand sanitizers. She is the owner of Bella Nails in San Mateo and is donating thousands of dollars worth of items.

"One of my longtime clients texted me and asked if there's anyway I can help. There's been a lot of friends and family on social media who are willing to fund the costs of this because obviously it takes a whole village," says Nguyen.

She is working with her suppliers and will be giving more than 42-thousand gloves and more than 13-hundred masks among other things.

Amanda Chawla represents Stanford Health Care.

"It's challenging because of the market and the amount of supply availability," she said.

Specialty medical swabs and gowns are in high demand at UCSF. They along with others like Stanford are asking for things like unused N95 and surgical masks, unopened packages of gloves, unused protective googles, and sanitizer. Chawla describes some of the problems they've had getting their gear from China.

"In the Hubei region that is where a lot fo the PPE manufacturing has been and when those started shutting down our suppliers started getting impacted."

UCSF students hit the front lines Sunday. When we spoke with them they had already received more than 8-thousand donated items.

India Perez-Urban is a medical student heading the effort at UCSF.

"We're getting masks that's surgical masks and n95 masks that people bought for the wildfires also getting gloves goggles and facial shields, bunny suits."

Stanford started taking donations on Sunday and will continue at 550 Broadway. UCSF will start on Monday at the Mount Zion Medical Center, UCSF Mission Center Building, and Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland.

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