wileyfinn

Thanks for the info. I learned we are not to clean off the masks but being careful how we doff and store them to avoid contamination of the inside of the mask as much as possible. Were super short on n95s anyway and just using surgical masks unless doing certain procedures requiring more protection. Stay safe everyone and keep up the good work.

Interesting. We already use this to decontaminate some rooms. I still need an interim method. Wearing a surgical mask over my n95 has occured to me, though the outside of the mask would still be contaminated since the virus can seep through. Were also short on surgical masks. Ill probably just use the oxivir wipes unless people at work are doing something better. I feel like the hospital has just accepted that were all gonna get this thing eventually so might as well get it over with and have workers coming back who are immune.

My hospital is just using surgical masks for Covid patients unless you are in the ICU or doing certain procedures that could introduce deeper secretions into the air. So yeah, It's been interesting taking care of patients who are likely positive, some of whom turned out to be positive later. At this point it seems extremely likely I and others are going to get it, but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

Sorry if this has been covered, but I'm wondering what the best procedure is for reusing an N95. At my hospital we were initially told we would be using N95/PAPRs for Covid 19 Rule out patients or patients that are positive. The masks were to be reused and stored in a paper bag between uses due to a shortage of them. So my question on the N95's is this. Can you clean the N95's between uses? It seems to me the outside of your mask would become contaminated with virus particles, and simply putting them in a paper bag would then possibly(or likely) result in some of those particles getting into the wrong side of your N95, so it would be best to clean the thing off before putting it in the bag, but I'm not sure what effect if any this would have on the mask, and what solution to use. We have Oxivir wipes that we use to clean other equipment. Would those work for the N95s? As it is were apparently so short on n95s that were using surgical masks instead unless in an ICU setting or doing certain procedures, so thats what I've used on the few patients I've had that were rule outs(some of whom were later positive). But Id like to know in the event I'm using an N95. Previously I had used a PAPR on TB patients and cleaned it off with the wipes between uses, but PAPRs are in even shorter supply.