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Ohio’s Nursing Homes Are Running Out Of Personal Protective Equipment

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Ohio’s nursing homes don’t have enough personal protective equipment to last another week. That’s the finding from a federal agency that deals with Medicare and Medicaid services.

The entrance to Continuing Health Care in Gahanna, where two staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 tests, but no residents have.
The entrance to Continuing Health Care in Gahanna. [Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau]
A spokesman for a union that represents health care workers in nursing homes says those facilities have been hit the hardest by this pandemic. Yet Anthony Caldwell of the SEIU 1199 says there isn’t enough equipment on hand to protect workers and patients in Ohio’s long-term skilled nursing facilities.

“Fifteen percent of nursing homes do not have a one-week supply of N-95 masks, six percent of nursing homes do not have a one-week supply of surgical masks and nine percent of nursing homes do not have a one-week supply of gowns,” Caldwell says.

Caldwell says it’s vital that the federal government step up immediately. The state’s stats show as many as 70 percent of Ohio’s COVID deaths have been in nursing homes.