Huge shortage: El Paso medical supply store shelves empty of respiratory masks due to coronavirus concerns

EL PASO, Texas -- If you're looking for a respiratory face mask in El Paso, you may be out of luck.

Medical supply businesses across the Borderland are reporting a shortage and are waiting on back orders from their vendors.

ABC-7 found one inside the Casa Medical supply company in West El Paso. And that's only because this business is holding on to it as a display, to show folks what the N95 surgical mask is supposed to look like.

However, the shelves the masks are normally stacked on, are empty.

"I think because of the virus, you know, the coronavirus, people are getting nervous. And so what they're doing, they're calling all around the city to see what they can get," said Casa Medical owner George Walsh.

Customers continue calling asking for the respiratory mask.

"We do have a long list right now," said a store cashier into the phone. "We're actually not getting in as many a we would like."

Walsh does offer customers a surgical mask, of which he has a few left. But it is not a respiratory mask, which is supposed to protect against respiratory diseases. Rather, it is a cloth mask which only protects against droplet residue, like sneezing or coughing. But he's running out of that one as well.

Walsh said the majority of surgical masks come from the same place.

"They can't get, you know, the manufacturers. And what I understand the majrity of them are made in China where the corona virus is, so they're keeping those there," he explained.

It should be pointed out, there are no coronavirus cases in El Paso. In fact, there are only 13 suspected cases in the U.S.