Researchers in Winnipeg say they may have found a way for health-care workers to reuse N95 masks up to 10 times while treating patients with COVID-19.
Demand for personal protective equipment — including the all-important N95 masks — has been soaring around the world as overtaxed doctors, nurses and hospitals struggle to manage the spike in COVID-19 cases while protecting themselves from infection.
The work, led by University of Manitoba researcher and critical-care physician, Dr. Anand Kumar, started in mid-March and looked at different ways of sterilizing used masks. “Medical masks are used by health-care workers, with the N95 providing the best protection against tiny aerosol particles that carry the novel coronavirus,” explained Kumar,