…as the coronavirus overwhelms hospitals, doctors and nurses are being forced to reuse them repeatedly.

Given that there’s a limited supply of N95 masks, a mask sterilizer might be the answer.

There’s some information out there on how to sterilize a mask. To quote from that piece:

MASK REUSE METHOD #2

You can also sterilize the N95 mask by hanging it in the oven (without contacting metal) at 70C (158F) for 30 minutes-it is reported that COVID-19 cannot survive at 65C (149F) for 30 minutes.

Use a wood clip to hang the respirator in the kitchen oven to do the sterilization.

When sterilizing N95 masks, be wary of using UV light–keep N95 masks away from UV light / sunlight. N95 masks are degraded by UV light because it damages the electrostatic charges in the polypropylene material. It is unclear how long the masks can be exposed to UV light before they are ineffective.

Autoclaves can do this same thing — and there should be several in every hospital. Note from this autoclave chart that they are capable of running at zero pressure/dry.