New Hampshire retail stores are being ordered to temporarily transition to the use of single-use paper or plastic bags because of the risk that reusable bags could pose a risk of transmission of the coronavirus.
In the order issued late Saturday, Gov. Chris Sununu directed all grocers and retail stores in New Hampshire to transition to use only new paper or plastic grocery bags provided by stores “as soon as feasibly possible.”
“Our grocery store workers are on the front lines of COVID-19, working around the clock to keep New Hampshire families fed,” the governor said in a statement. “With identified community transmission, it is important that shoppers keep their reusable bags at home given the potential risk to baggers, grocers and customers.”
More than 65 people have tested positive in New Hampshire for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three people in the state have been hospitalized.
The hospital is asking the community for donations of medical supplies for its staff. According to a Facebook post, the hospital is asking anyone with new N-95 masks or spare hand sanitizer to drop them off at the visitor entrance any day between 5:30 a.m. and 8 p.m.
New Hampshire’s largest hospital is encouraging volunteers to sew face masks for patients, visitors and staff so that medical-grade protective equipment can be conserved for front-line health care workers.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is preparing kits with fabric and elastic for pickup and has set up a website with directions on how to sew the masks based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Donations can be dropped off either at the hospital’s service center warehouse in Lebanon or at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock clinic in Manchester. The masks will be sanitized and distributed throughout the Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Kristin Roth, the hospital’s director of volunteer services, says the nearly 500 people who typically volunteer at the facility have been eager to step up.
“We were being inundated with questions about, ‘How can I help?’” she said Saturday.