Santa Clara County is running a stockpile drive for medical equipment as healthcare workers prepare to handle large numbers of patients when novel coronavirus testing begins ramp up in the region.
The county's health system is planning for the weeks and months ahead, and while stock exists of necessary equipment, officials said there will be a need for more.
While county officials won't say when exactly testing will grow exponentially, as is needed to test such a large population as that of the county, local medical departments must be stocked and ready to handle the need.
At a news conference Friday outside the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino said that a call for supplies and cash the previous day led to total donations of about 171,300 surgical masks, 4,000 pairs of gloves, 2,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, 2,000 hazmat suits, 1,200 respirators and $596,551 in cash.
But that won't be enough, and the county's health system needs more supplies, officials said Friday.
Specifically, medical staff is in need of face shields and surgical masks, gowns, gloves, and sanitizing wipes, among other items.
A full list of needed supplies can be found at https://vmcfoundation.org/covid19list/.
Local
By Friday afternoon, there were eight deaths from the COVID-19 coronavirus disease and the number of confirmed cases in Santa Clara County had reached 196.
