COVID-19: AIIMS to provide N95 masks to all healthcare workers

Taking measures to safeguard its workers against coronavirus, the AIIMS administration has decided to provide N95 masks to all its healthcare workers involved in direct patient careand has asked them to reuse the masks at least four times after disinfecting them.

The masks, it said, will suffice for 20 days after being disinfected.

According to a circular issued on Tuesday, each healthcare worker including doctors, nurses, technical staff and security guards would be provided five N95 masks each.

"The ANS I/C of various patient care areas shall ensure the availability of red bins for segregation of used N95 masks in their respective areas.

"It is imperative that in accordance with evidence based scientific literature, these N95 masks are to be disinfected by individual users (by keeping them in open after use or by other methods) and re-used at least4 times each, whereby these will suffice for about 20 days," the circular said.

TheResident Doctor's Association (RDA) of AIIMS earlier had written to the AIIMS administration raising the issue of inadequate PPEs in the hospital.

"Sadly found that most of the wards do not have adequate universal precaution components," the RDA has stated in their letter.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) includes N95 masks, gowns and goggles among others.