Coronavirus: UC Irvine Students Hold Supply Drive For Masks, Face Shields For Health Care Workers

IRVINE (CBSLA) – With hospitals across the nation facing major shortages of personal protective equipment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, University of California Irvine medical students Monday held a supply drive asking residents and local businesses to donate supplies for their healthcare workers.

UCI School of Medicine students called for donations of N95 masks, surgical masks, face shields, isolation gowns, hand sanitizer and safety goggles.

The drive was held Monday morning in the parking lot of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, located at 850 Health Sciences Rd.

"To not only protect them from getting the virus and our healthcare system from collapsing, but also protect them from spreading it to other patients as well because we want to mitigate this COVID-19 virus as much as possible," UCI Medical Student Jaspal Bassi told CBS2.

On Friday, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced it was donating 100,000 N-95 masks it keeps for emergencies to local hospitals.

As of Saturday, at least 73 healthcare workers in California had tested positive for coronavirus through person-to-person transmission, according to the state Department of Public Health.

Anyone looking to donate items through the UCI Medical Center should click here.