KATHLEEN RONAYNE and BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO (AP) — California is scrambling to obtain protective gear for healthcare workers and first responders, reaching out worldwide and working with locals to ratchet up production as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps through the nation's most populous state.
The state is trying to acquire about 1 billion sets of gloves and hundreds of millions of gowns, surgical masks and face shields, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.
"It's going to take an heroic effort" to procure the personal protection equipment, or PPE, needed to prepare for an expected surge in COVID-19 cases, Newsom said.
Among other things, he said the state would charter flights from China with gear and had heard from companies wanting to use 3-D printers to make surgica
