Coronavirus outbreak: Paucity of personal protective equipment puts lives at risk

In the wake of outbreak of coronavirus threat across countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) asked governments and industry to increase manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) by 40 per cent to meet rising global demand.

WHO has warned that disruption to the global supply of PPE is putting lives at risk from the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases. This shortfall, delay in supply and interruption have been caused by rising demand, panic buying, hoarding and misuse.

Emphasizing on the need of the hour, WHO says,“shortages are leaving doctors, nurses and other workers ill-equipped to care for coronavirus affected patients, due to limited access to supplies such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns and aprons.” 

“Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We can’t stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

- Singh Rakesh Ranjan

(Sources)