One of the top cancer hospitals in the US is running low on masks as eight patients and staff members are diagnosed with coronavirus.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City hast just one week’s supply of masks left, according to BuzzFeed News.
Politicians and health experts have been asking the general public and other companies to donate their supply of masks to hospitals because doctors and nurses battling coronavirus on the front lines need them the most.
It comes three of Sloan Kettering’s patients and five of their staff members were tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (pictured) in New York City, of the nation’s top cancer hospitals, has only one week’s supply of masks
The hospital reported that three patients and five staff members have been infected with coronavirus. Pictured: A nurse stands outside the entrance to the mobile surge unit tent for coronavirus testing at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Georgia, March 17
A study from China found the coronavirus patients with cancer have a mortality rate of 5.6 percent compared to healthy patients. Pictured: Laurie Kuypers, a registered nurse, reaches into a car to take a swab from a patient at a drive-thru coronavirus testing station for University of Washington Medicine patients, March 17
BuzzFeed News reports that Sloan Kettering’s senior vice president of supply chain and sustaining care, Kreg Korford, told employees that reason supply is low is production.
The majority of the hospital’s personal protective equipment (PPE) is made in China – the epicenter of the outbreak – and there are currently production and distribution delays in the Asian country.
‘It’s been a couple of months since new shipments have come,’ Koford said, according to a transcript of a staff meeting last Friday, obtained by BuzzFeed News.
‘Their manufacturing is coming back online, but we will not likely see that for four to eight weeks.’
A hospital spokesperson confirmed the shortage and said administrators are working to find more supplies.
‘Balancing supply and demand for PPE is essential to a hospital and we have our supply chain experts on the frontline, tapping into all of their resources, to ensure we are continuing to have an adequate supply,’ he told BuzzFeed News.
‘Our focus is on continuing to provide excellent care for our patients and doing everything we can to keep our staff and patients healthy and safe,’ the spokesperson said.
It comes on the heels of news that three of Sloan Kettering’s patients and five staff members have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.
Details were not immediately clear about what departments the staff members worked in and if the patient were inpatient our outpatient.
According to the transcript of the Friday meeting, not all of the cases were ‘related to exposure’ at the hospital, meaning some cases occurred via community transmission.
Sloan Kettering is just one of several hospital in the US struggling to deal wit the shortages of masks, other PPE, beds and ventilators.
But patients here at even greater risk because their treatments, particularly chemotherapy and radiation, leave them immunocompromised.
One study out of China looked at patients with underlying conditions and found that cancer patients had a mortality rate of 5.6 percent, much higher compared to the general population.
According to the transcript, hospital officials are trying to limited spread of the virus by ‘canceling surgeries and procedures, non-essentials’ reported BuzzFeed News.
Doctors at Sloan Kettering have been asked to provide prioritization lists of patients to treat and replace meetings with teleconferencing. Pictured: A patient is loaded into an ambulance at Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, March 10
Hospital officials are also asking to doctors to submit prioritization lists of patients to treat, reported BuzzFeed News.
Certain staff members have been asked to work from and teleconferencing has replaced several in-person meetings.
Sloan Kettering did not immediately return DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Worldwide, more than 196,000 people have been infected and more than 7,800 people have died.
In the US, there are more than 5,900 people confirmed cases and 99 deaths.