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Schools, Universities Donate Protective Gear To Workers Fighting The Coronavirus

WAKEFIELD (CBS) -- Healthcare workers are on the front lines in the fight the coronavirus, and to stay safe, they are demanding more supplies.

"I'm not going to lie, there is a lot of fear and anxiety," said nurse Mary Cornacchia. She said hospitals will need protective gear for the foreseeable future.

"It takes a village within the hospital walls, and every one of us needs that protection at the bedside," Cornacchia said.

Organizations with extra equipment are answering the call. Northeast Metro Tech High School in Wakefield is giving gallons of hand sanitizer, along with thousands of masks and gloves to Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.

"We were able to ironically donate back a lot of the supplies that were donated to us in the past from the same hospitals," said Northeast Metro Tech Superintendent David DiBarri.

Regis College is also donating protective gear from its dental hygiene and nursing programs. The equipment from the college is now at a MEMA warehouse where truckloads of donations were being brought in Friday.

"Certainly that gear -- it couldn't sit here knowing that our folks on the front line we have to protect," Kelley Tuthill of Regis College.

First-responders are also looking for more protective gear. Fallon Ambulance is as part of the Metropolitan Boston EMS Council. It's giving out equipment from the council's reserve stockpile to cities and towns.

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