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Brendan Murphy, Australia’s chief medical officer, has just been telling the federal parliament in Canberra that the government is doing what it can to replenish stocks of protective clothing and equipment for health workers.
“The other dimension in preparation is there is a worldwide concern about the availability of personal protective equipment, you know, masks and the like, which there has obviously been a run on an government is very focused on making sure we enhance and build greater our stocks. We’ve always had a stockpile and the states have stockpiles...We are doing a full assessment of that and making sure that we buy more and do what we can to be prepared for every eventuality.”
Speaking more generally about the outbreak, he said: “The focus is on containment, limitation and slowing any spread. We can keep the situation under control. We are a well prepared health system but even the best system can face a challenge.”
The World Health Organization has voiced concern that the masks, googles and other protective equipment used by health workers is running out amid panic buying and the manipulation of markets, warning that supplies are “rapidly depleting”.
“We are concerned that countries’ abilities to respond are being compromised by the severe and increasing disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment ... caused by rising demand, hoarding and misuse,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.
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