Three weeks after Filipino health workers sounded the alarm over the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), the government’s coronavirus task force announced that local garment factories will start producing the badly needed items for frontliners treating coronavirus patients.
Inter-Agency Task Force spokesperson Karlo Nograles on Monday said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) partnered with member-companies of the Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines to ensure there is enough gear to protect medical frontliners. Once the factories start operating after Holy Week, the country can produce 10,000 coveralls daily.
"Raw materials for these will be shipped in by this week and the roll out of production at the garment factories will immediately start after the Holy Week,” Nograles said.
So far, 17 doctors have died tending to patients infected with the virus. The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) attributed these deaths to the lack of protection offered to healthcare workers exposed to the highly-contagious virus.
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