The biggest challenge facing Florida’s health care system right now is the lack of protective equipment- like masks, gloves and gowns.
That’s according to Governor Ron DeSantis. At a press briefing in Orlando Wednesday he said the state has ordered 7.8 million N95 masks.
Those masks are expected to arrive in the next few weeks, and in the meantime, the governor is also asking the federal government for a further two million masks from the strategic national stockpile.
On this episode of Intersection, we talk about the surge in cases that hospitals and health care workers are bracing for here in Central Florida, what hospitals are doing to prepare, and what frontline medical staff are seeing.
Joining the conversation are 90.7 health reporter Abe Aboraya; Orlando Health's Hospital Epidemiologist Dr. Asim Jani; and Orlando Professional Firefighters Local 1365 president Ron Glass.