New York City paramedics and emergency medical technicians must wear medical-grade face masks while treating any patient during the coronavirus outbreak, FDNY honchos have announced.
The FDNY last month said first responders should only wear N95 respirator masks while performing up-close “aerosol-generating” procedures like CPR, but remain unmasked during less critical jobs.
Now the front line workers must wear surgical masks during every call, and strap on a more protective N95 for close-up “proximity work."
“We must now consider all patients, (including trauma call types) to be infected and all persons (even coworkers and family members) to have been exposed due to community spread,” said a Saturday memo distributed to FDNY EMS staff.