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As the U.S. combats the spread of the novel coronavirus, health care experts continue to debate how to best protect America’s protectors during a time when they are needed most. With masks and other supplies dwindling, public health experts are now balancing the need to keep healthcare workers on the front lines against the need to protect medical staff from becoming patients themselves. (David, 3/18)

Two doctors in Washington state, which leads the U.S. in coronavirus deaths, have tested positive for the disease as hospitals scramble to make due with a shortage of masks and other equipment needed to keep them from getting sick. In the area of Seattle that's been hardest-hit, some nurses in emergency departments are washing and reusing surgical masks, gloves and gowns. They may work on a patient for hours or more before learning they tested positive for COVID-19. (3/17)

Dozens of health-care workers have fallen ill with covid-19, and more are quarantined after exposure to the virus, an expected but worrisome development as the U.S. health system girds for an anticipated surge in infections. From hotspots such as the Kirkland, Wash., nursing home where nearly four dozen staffers tested positive for the coronavirus, to outbreaks in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California and elsewhere, the virus is picking off doctors, nurses and others needed in the rapidly expanding crisis. (Bernstein, Boburg, Sacchetti and Brown, 3/17)

Administrators at the Renton, Wash., headquarters of the Providence health system are in conference rooms assembling makeshift face shields from vinyl, elastic and two-sided tape because supplies are drying up. Nurses from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, preparing for a potential shortage, have pleaded with friends on Facebook for any goggles and other gear they might have lying around. Providence plans next to make its own masks, with possible help from a uniform manufacturer. “I’m reusing my mask from yesterday,” said Calvin Sun, an emergency-room doctor in New York City. “We really have no choice.” (Evans and Safdar, 3/18)

The Cambridge Health Alliance is accepting mask donations from the public at its Greater Boston hospitals amid the coronavirus pandemic, as frontline health providers nationwide struggle with a shortage of protective gear. (Andersen, 3/17)

As the aviation industry struggles to offset the economic impact of the novel coronavirus, those representing employees on the frontline believe not enough is being done to protect their health. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has confirmed that eight of their officers have tested positive for COVID-19. This number has doubled within the last four days as the virus continues to spread in the U.S. and more testing becomes available. (Kaji, Maile and Benitez, 3/17)