The CDC recently updated its guidance document detailing Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of N95 Respirators during the ongoing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shortage. Updates include:

Conventional capacity strategies

• Edited the section on the use of airborne infection isolation rooms (AIIRs) for aerosol-generating procedures performed on patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients.
• Added language on FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) authorizing the use of certain NIOSH-approved respirator models in healthcare settings to the section on N95 alternatives.

Contingency capacity strategies

• Added a section on temporarily suspending annual fit testing following updated guidance from OSHA
• Added more details in the extended use section.

Crisis capacity strategies

• Added language on the use of respirators approved under international standards and updated the tables.
• Combined sections on limited re-use of N95 respirators for tuberculosis and then COVID-19 patients. Added more details surrounding limited re-use.

The CDC also offers Information on the Decontamination and Reuse of Filtering Facepiece Respirators.

Additional CDC resources for first responders: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/first-responders.html