This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
With new recommendations from the CDC that everyone wear a face covering when in public, Mary Washington Healthcare is asking for help sewing 5,000 masks for employees not on the front lines of the COVID crisis.
The masks they’re requesting would include wire nose pieces so each of the Fredericksburg-area hospital system’s associates would have a mask to wear.
As COVID-19 spreads, the hospital system is seeing many patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 who have inadvertently been spreading the virus during periods when they were asymptomatic, according to a news release.
- Sign up for news alerts from WTOP
- How Montgomery County is trying to lighten the load of strained ERs
- Face coverings recommended, but Trump says he won’t wear one
- DC-area fire and police departments make coronavirus contingency plans
- Coronavirus test results in D.C., Maryland and Virginia
- Coronavirus FAQ: What you need to know
“Our medical staff caring for COVID-19 patients and those patients under investigation pending test results, will continue to wear N95 masks,” hospital officials noted in a statement on social media. “The masks we need are for staff on all other units and for our non-clinical associates who are unable to work from home.”
MWH has provided a pattern and how to donate the completed masks.
We are asking for your help to sew 5,000 masks so each of our Associates has a mask to wear to work. Our medical staff caring for COVID-19 patients will continue to wear N95 masks. Find the pattern and donation info here: https://t.co/9RsViQCEwF. #inthistogether #5000Masks pic.twitter.com/m6uj094NzX
— Mary Washington Healthcare (@MWHCConnection) April 2, 2020
On Sunday, Virginia Department of Health reported 2,637 cases of coronavirus in the state, including 41 in Stafford, 24 in Spotsylvania and 7 in Fredericksburg.