We cannot stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers. A set of gloves, mask and gown have become the new imperatives, not just for the healthcare ecosystem but also for the global leaders in their resolve to address the global challenge at hand.
India, like most parts of the world, is in a race against time to procure personal protective equipment (PPE) for the safety of its medical teams, fighting to halt the spread of coronavirus. According to a Reuters report, India needs at least 38 million masks and 6.2 million PPEs to fight the global pandemic. Challenges though remain beyond just numbers. In the global demand surge for PPE, as many as 50,000 of the 1.7 million recently imported PPE kits, failed the quality test in India. A shortage of these kits is being felt across the world, as countries close borders and India relies heavily on imports. The rise in demand and incidents of faulty kits has pushed the Government of India (GOI) to ramp up domestic production of the much-needed PPE kits.