COVID-19 Overview | Human Resources & Staff Management | Patient Management Who needs personal protective equipment (PPE)? As communities across the U.S. take steps to slow the spread of COVID-19 by limiting close contact, people are facing new challenges and questions about how to meet basic household needs, such as buying groceries and medicine and completing banking activities. The following information provides advice about how to meet these household needs in a safe and healthy manner. The CDC recommends following everyday preventive actions, such as washing your hands, covering your cough, staying home when you are sick, and following social distancing. The CDC also recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. Patients with confirmed or possible COVID-19 infection should wear a facemask when being evaluated medically. Healthcare personnel should adhere to standard, contact, and airborne precautions, including the use of eye protection (e.g., goggles or a face shield) when caring for patients with COVID-19 infection. These precautions include the use of PPE, including NIOSH-approved N95 respirators, gowns, gloves, face shield/eye protection, etc. News & Knowledge All Curi recommendations are based on current CDC criteria at the time of publication. CDC guidance for SARS-CoV-2 infection may, or may not, be adopted by state and local health departments to respond to rapidly changing local circumstances. Providers should always check with their local health department to see if the CDC’s guidance on any given topic has been modified (particularly if more restrictive) from the CDC’s recommended guidelines. Follow this link https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/healthdirectories/index.html for contact information to your state/local health department. If local recommendations vary from those of the CDC, and you are unsure what recommendations to follow, then it is safer to follow the more restrictive guidelines/recommendations.