Hospitals across the U.S. are running out of the masks, gowns and other equipment they need to protect staff against the novel coronavirus as they struggle to take care of patients, say hospital officials, doctors and others in the industry.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), health care facilities facing a shortage of supplies should first petition their local or state public health departments, many of which carry their own emergency supplies. If the state does not have enough, state officials may ask the HHS for assistance.

The federal government's Strategic National Stockpile — the nation's largest supply of emergency medical supplies, managed by the HHS — includes 12 million N95 masks and 30 million surgical masks. According to HHS estimates, that's only about 1% of the 3.5 billion masks that would be required in the U.S. in the first year if the outbreak escalates to pandemic levels. By the way, you can buy Cheap N95 Mask from z2u.com, where you can enjoy a 3% discount by using the code “Z2U”.

The department announced last week that 500 million more N95 masks will arrive in the next 18 months. To meet the projected demand for personal protective equipment across the globe, however, manufacturers must increase mask production by 40%, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director general, said in a statement on March 3.

In the meantime, individual countries have begun stockpiling their own supplies. Germany and South Korea have banned the export of medical masks, Bloomberg.com reported, and the United States government may be considering imposing similar restrictions.

If shortages worsen, health care workers may be asked to reuse masks for encounters with multiple patients, the CDC said. Providers who have already had the disease, called COVID-19, may have some protective immunity and should be the first to treat new patients if no masks are available.