In trenches of New York's coronavirus crisis, nurses beg, borrow and steal precious masks

Amid growing shortages of vital protective equipment in New York hospitals, healthcare workers are desperately scrounging to find facemasks, hiding supplies from colleagues in other departments, and sometimes even pilfering for themselves.

The novel coronavirus has infected nearly 45,000 across New York, and more than 550,000 globally. Nurses in New York City were shaken on Tuesday, when Kious Kelly, a nurse manager at a Mount Sinai Health System hospital, died after being infected.

Nurses who would normally use masks and other protective gear only once are keeping them for entire shifts or longer to conserve supplies.

"Masks disappear," said Diana Torres, a Mount Sinai nurse. "We hide it all in drawers in front of the nurses' station. We hide masks, we have to hide chucks for beds," she said, referring to incontinence pads.

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Source: MedScape Nurses, 30 March 2020