Gana PrakashA video of Malaysian healthcare workers using plastic bags as face covers has gone viral and shared on Facebook over 42,000, as countries over the world are facing shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) due to rising of COVID-19 cases.
PPE refers to protective clothing that include surgical caps, face shields, gloves, gowns, boot covers, N95 masks, helmets and goggles that medical professionals wear to be protected from injury or the spread of infection. The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) protection gear is clearly inadequate and puts medical frontliners in danger of becoming infected themselves.
CNA reporter Melissa Goh has revealed that the medical workers in the video are from a hospital in the northern state of Kelantan.
“While awaiting fresh supply of PPE to arrive, government healthcare workers at a Kelantan hospital are improvising, turning garbage bags into protective suits. [If] there’s a will there a way,” she wrote on her personal Twitter account.
“They’re going to war without armour, how brave are our Ministry of Health (MOH) workers getting donned in plastic garbage bags? No complaints, just surrender.” a video caption by Facebook user Sera Bagus People of Malaysia.
In another tweet healthcare professionals in the eastern state of Sabah are shown busy folding and sewing headscarves as protection for themselves.
“Each time we treat a patient or even carry out a test for Covid-19, we have to suit up, which in itself takes 30 minutes or more. We then dispose of the suits after that. We go through four or five suits each day. It is very tiring. It does not offer much protection, but we have no choice,” said one doctor from a government hospital in East Malaysia.
Hospitals are badly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak with the medical teams stretched to the limit with fears over doctors and nurses safety. At present, 19 medical frontliners have come down with Covid-19 of which 11 are now in intensive care.
Two senior doctors had wrote an open letter to the authorities appealing to speed up supplies. Datuk Dr Musa Mohd Nordin and Datuk Dr Zulkifli Ismail urged the government to immediately mitigate the PPE shortage. They revealed that there are three companies in Malaysia that manufacture PPEs
“Why have we not heard from these companies? Are they expecting to increase their price at a time of national crisis or are they ‘stockpiling’ to force the demand and reap from a supply shortage? Presumably, the middlemen, agents and distributors are similarly cashing in on the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“They must secure urgently the supply chain, eliminate the middlemen, and undertake bulk purchasing, which would ensure fair pricing,” they said.
“And they must distribute equitably to all COVID-19 designated hospitals, not just in the Klang Valley. They must also keep reserve supplies to secure surge capacity.”
“It is high time for the government to demand the PPE manufacturers to step up without fanfare and ramp up production, accept reduced profit margins, and supply the critically-needed PPEs to our healthcare workers.”
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham has since assured that order for PPE supplies have been made. He also urged to public to not wear masks unless needed.
“Masks and PPEs should be reserved for the frontline workers. That’s our first priority, more so when we are running short of PPE now.”
The situation is expected to get worse as more people head to hospitals for tests and might be admitted.
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