MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Medical Society is asking people who may have extra personal protective equipment to consider donating the items to the medical community.
The society is a professional group that represents doctors in Shelby County. The group has partnered with the Shelby County Health Department.
As you have likely heard, health care workers are in dire need of protective gear. And it is expected the need will get worse as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
The society is looking for what's known as PPEs. That includes N-95 face masks, basic surgical masks, non-latex exam gloves, and face shields.
"We don't care if it is your neighbor who has a few masks or large companies with a stock of masks - if they have masks they want to donate, we will take them. People just need to tell us what they have," said Clint Cummins, Memphis Medical Society CEO.
Cummins said there is also a need for people who know how to sew to make masks. Those masks would not be used for medical workers to handle coronavirus patients, because those medical workers need N-95 masks. But the hand-sewn masks could be used on other types patients, so the N95s could move up the supply chain.
Cummins is calling on welders, auto body shops, builders, or any industry that uses masks to donate them.
If you have items to donate, click on this link. The Memphis Medical Society will contact you for more information and to arrange a pickup or call the MMS at 901-761-0200.
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Coronavirus in Context:
The majority of people who have coronavirus will get better without any long-term effects, according to an Oregon doctor. About 80% of cases tend to be mild. In these cases, symptoms diminish over five to seven days, although people are still capable of transmitting the disease. But there are many people with a higher risk of having a more severe disease if they are diagnosed with coronavirus, including those with heart disease, diabetes, asthma and other vascular disease problems.
Also, most children who get it have mild symptoms.
WHO officials said March 9 that of about 80,000 people who have been sickened by COVID-19 in China, more than 70% have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.
Patients are typically released when they test negative twice for the virus within 24 hours, meaning they’re no longer carrying the virus, although some countries may be using a slightly different definition, that may include when people have no more respiratory symptoms or a clear CT scan.
The World Health Organization said it could take considerably longer for people to be “recovered,” depending on the severity of disease.
Dr. Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization's emergencies chief, said it can take up to six weeks for people to fully recover from COVID-19 infections, which could include pneumonia and other respiratory problems in serious cases. He said the numbers of reported patients have not always been systematically provided to World Health Organization although the U.N. health agency is asking every country with cases for further information.
To put the coronavirus numbers in context, millions of Americans get the flu every single year and there are thousands of flu deaths annually.
Since October 2019, the CDC estimates around 32 million Americans have gotten the flu. That’s one in every 10 Americans.