COVID-19 protective gear donations
June 01, 2020
UCI medical student Mehron Dhillon stacks donations of personal protective equipment during a drive for supplies in the UCI School of Medicine parking lot. Photo credit: Steve Zylius / UCI
IN THE NEWS: Orange County companies, residents, students, alumni and philanthropists rally around UCI Health to help shore up supplies for the COVID-19 outbreak.
When national health authorities sent out the first alerts in January about the novel coronavirus spreading in Wuhan, China, UCI Health administrators launched into action. They knew they needed to get ahead of imminent supply shortages before people began stockpiling and hoarding. Managers activated critical stores of materials and spent more than $1 million to buy gloves, masks and other necessary medical items that would soon become popular commodities.
As supply chains were disrupted and store shelves emptied, Orange County residents stepped up with donations of every size and kind — both money and personal protective equipment (PPE) — to enable UCI Health to care for patients and safeguard front-line medical workers. The outpouring of generosity has allowed Orange County's only academic health system to weather a global shortage of PPE due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learn how the Orange County community is helping UCI Health fight COVID-19 ›
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