Nurse dies in New York hospital where workers are reduced to using trash bags as protective medical gear

REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Hospital workers near a tent erected to test for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S., March 19, 2020.

• A healthcare worker in a New York City hospital died from COVID-19 on Tuesday.
• He was working with COVID-19 patients and was diagnosed with the virus almost two weeks ago, according to the New York Post.
• Protective equipment is running low: Healthcare workers in the same hospital system posted photos of themselves on Facebook wearing garbage bags instead of medical scrubs.
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A nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York died from COVID-19 after contracting coronavirus almost two weeks ago. Protective medical gowns are in such short supply in the Mount Sinai system that some nurses have started to use "Hefty" brand garbage bags instead, according to photos on social media.

The New York Post reported that Kious Kelly, an assistant nursing manager at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, died on Tuesday. Kelly was 48 years old.

His sister confirmed his death to The Post, saying she was told he had been in the ICU, but that he did not think it was serious. The Post did not specify how he contracted the virus.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of a beloved member of our nursing staff," Renatt Brodsky, a spokesperson for the Mount Sinai Health System told Business Insider in a statement. Brodsky did not provide any further details.

In the United States, New York state has become the epicenter for the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 33,000 infections and over 360 deaths. In New York and other areas in the US with large outbreaks, healthcare workers are reporting shortages of personal protective equipment, like masks, gowns, face shields, and gloves.

At Mount Sinai West, in the same hospital system where Kelly worked, nurses published a photo on social media showing them fashioning plastic trash bags into protective outfits, according to the Post.

"NO MORE GOWNS IN THE WHOLE HOSPITAL," they wrote on Facebook. "NO MORE MASKS AND REUSING THE DISPOSABLE ONES … NURSES FIGURING IT OUT DURING COVID-19 CRISIS." One nurse is seen holding a box of Hefty "Strong" 33-gallon bags, more commonly used for lining household trash cans.

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