WHO chief calls for more production of personal protective equipment

A medical technology company staffer works beside a surgical dressing production line in Changxing County of Huzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 6, 2020.(Photo by Tan Yunfeng/Xinhua)

For each month, 89 million medical masks, 76 million examination gloves, and 1.6 million goggles are required for the COVID-19 response, according to WHO's estimation.

GENEVA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tuesday called on manufacturers to urgently increase production to meet demand and guarantee supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) worldwide as COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, hit more countries.

It is estimated that PPE supplies need to be increased by 40 percent globally, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a daily briefing, noting that shortages of PPE such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, and face shields are leaving frontline healthcare workers dangerously ill-equipped to care for COVID-19 patients.

A staffer puts a card reading "Mask is currently out of stock" at a supermarket in Seoul, South Korea, March 2, 2020.(NEWSIS/Handout via Xinhua)

For each month, 89 million medical masks, 76 million examination gloves, and 1.6 million goggles are required for the COVID-19 response, according to WHO's estimation.

Tedros said the WHO is working with governments, manufacturers and the Pandemic Supply Chain Network, a public-private collaboration created by the WHO and World Economic Forum, to boost production and secure supplies for critically affected and at-risk countries and regions.

"We have called on governments to develop incentives for manufacturers to ramp up production," he added.

A notice showing "facial masks are out of stock" is seen on a door of a pharmacy in New York, the United States, Feb. 29, 2020.(Xinhua/Wang Ying)

By publishing guidelines, the WHO also called for rationalizing the use of PPE in health facilities.