03/24: N95 masks can be sterilized for reuse
I’m Nick and this is your daily COVID-19 update. All data from JHU CCSE. If you find this newsletter useful or uplifting, please share it.
Important: JHU appears to be doing some work on their dataset, probably due to an increased effort to track the evolving situation in the USA. In today’s files, certain countries do not have any registered data (France, notably) and other data appears to be incomplete. This means that the following information should be taken with a grain of salt and interpreted to be no more than an estimate of the current situation in Europe.
Europe
178 414 confirmed cases ( + 17 686 from yesterday)
11 991 recovered
9 082 deceased
Top affected countries
Each day I will share something that gives me hope. Something that inspires me in these challenging times. Sometimes that will be good news on COVID-19 (there is, and will be, good news!), resources to keep us busy during quarantine, or simply something I think might bring a spark of light to your day.
This is my way of saying: “Sure, the world’s on fire - but look, there’s also this”.
N95 masks can be sterilized and reused!
Mask shortage is one of the major problems for first-line responders and other healthcare professionals directly dealing with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. But there might be good news on the horizon! Stanford Medicine is working to determine if, and how, N95 masks might be disinfected for reuse.
Initial results are promising and seem to indicate that masks could be disinfected without negatively impacting filtration efficiency :
That’s it for today! Wash your hands and, please, be kind 🥰
Nick