OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An Omaha hospital system concerned about protecting medical staff who treat those infected with a highly contagious new coronavirus has turned to a local community college for help.
The Metropolitan Community College's prototype design lab is now producing plastic face shields for Nebraska Medicine amid a supply shortage of personal protective equipment for health care workers. Volunteers from the lab and other areas of the college are helping by assembling the masks from supplies lab coordinator Ken Heinze has collected from Omaha-area stores.
Heinze said he has collected enough material to assemble 1,000 face shield masks, which can be used by health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic.
Heinze said he's overseeing the production while also following officials' call to keep gatherings to 10 people or fewer.
"We'll put people around the building if we have to," he said.