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Law360 (April 1, 2020, 8:32 PM EDT) -- The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts issued a call Wednesday to federal courts nationwide to search for surplus medical supplies after a Florida court discovered a stockpile of respirator masks and donated them to local hospitals to help combat the novel coronavirus.
Employees at the Northern District of Florida remembered that the district had acquired N95 respirator masks, which filter out 95% of airborne particles, to protect workers from potential anthrax attacks and found 1,200 masks in the district's three courthouses, which were immediately donated to five local hospitals, according to the courts administrator.
"It was important for us to do our part, on behalf of the judiciary, to support the communities we serve and the medical professionals who are so desperately in need of supplies," Jessica Lyublanovits, clerk of the court for the Northern District of Florida, said in a statement. "Nothing reinforced how important our donation was than having the lab director for one of the hospitals break down in tears as the masks were delivered."
The discovery prompted a nationwide call to check storage areas in federal courthouses for any supplies that could be useful to health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
Elizabeth Warren, the clerk in the Middle District of Florida, said that after learning of the discovery in the neighboring district, Chief Judge Steven Merryday asked managers in all five of the Middle District's courthouses to search storage rooms, mail rooms and closets. They turned up 300 N95 masks and 1,500 gloves which were donated to hospitals.
The District of Massachusetts is donating two boxes of protective gloves that were bought to wipe down surfaces that might have the highly contagious virus, and the District of New Mexico said it has sent 280 N95 masks in addition to gloves, goggles, paper gowns and other supplies to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and 105 N95 masks to Mountain View Hospital in Las Cruces.
A spokesman for the Southern District of New York said the court had already donated about 1,000 N95 masks to a hospital in New York City about two weeks ago from its regular stash of supplies.
--Editing by Bruce Goldman.
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