Masks Run Short as Coronavirus Spreads

Premier Inc. which contracts for supplies on behalf of about 2,400 U.S. hospitals, said one of its distributors recently halted shipments of private-label masks manufactured in China. All distributors surveyed recently by Premier said they had delivered less than half of the medical respirators that hospitals had ordered in the past 45 days.

U.S-based mask-makers 3M Co. and Prestige Ameritech have roughly doubled their U.S. production since the outbreak began, to one million masks a week, according to Premier.

3M said it had ramped up production in the U.S., Asia, Europe and Latin America but declined to say how many masks it was producing.

Prestige Ameritech Chief Executive Mike Bowen said he has shared production data with Premier. He said he wants federal officials in the future to urge U.S. hospitals to buy critical medical supplies domestically to avoid shortage risks from a global supply chain.

Manufacturers in the U.S. must report the location of plants to the FDA, but other information about medical-supply production is confidential. Hospitals often don’t know where their masks were made, which some executives said makes it difficult to predict how they might be hit by production disruptions.

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