In the trenches of the battle against Covid-19, critical defensive gear and medical equipment are in short supply. Doctors and nurses fighting the nonstop onslaught of the highly contagious coronavirus desperately need more ventilators, test kits, surgical masks, shields, and gowns.

In Spain, healthcare workers are making their own shields or reusing disposable gowns, but 12,000 of them had caught the disease by the end of March. In worst-hit Italy, more than 60 doctors have died. The American epicenter of New York asked for 30,000 ventilators from federal authorities but got only 400.

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