FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the federal government has provided guidance to manufacturers to make cloth gowns — as opposed to the plastic ones typically used — for health care workers.

He also said the FDA revised guidance regarding the laundering of gowns "because gowns are another issue in terms of supply" that health care workers fighting coronavirus are facing.

"This is not something that normally happens around the country," he said.

Hahn said this is an effort to "increase the number of gowns" available for health care workers with "no further regulatory red tape to go into circulation."