'We have had N95 masks taken out of our hands before going into positive COVID patients,' one Victorian hospital physician said. | EXCLUSIVE coronavirus COVID19Vic
Throughout the pandemic, many health workers have said they haven’t always been able to access adequate personal protective equipment, including high-level, properly fitted N95 masks.
"After arranging our own PPE, we were told we were causing hysteria," the nurse said. "Sadly, these people got it wrong and now over 1000 healthcare workers are infected with COVID.” “The department is also supporting local manufacturers to modify machinery for production of small-sized respirators,” the September 10 memo said.
Previously, some nurses had reported using surgical masks while working with suspected coronavirus patients, and subsequently becoming infected. Dr Whitelaw said people had questioned if it was because of equipment shortages, though she had been reassured to hear from the Health Department recently that this wasn’t the case.
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