[ad_1]
A time trial race is underway to obtain necessary masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers on the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Live | All the latest coronavirus and crash updates
With South Africa it can only produce 10% of the medical grade masks it needs, a dual strategy of sourcing stocks from abroad and increasing local production is underway, according to Stavros Nicolau, who heads the health care task force at Business Unity SA (BUSA), GroundUp Reports.
The health care task force is one of several that have been established, with large companies working alongside the government to prepare for Covid-19.
“This has been a great wake-up call and our response has been to engage with suppliers, both manufacturers and importers,” Nicolau told GroundUp in a phone interview. The intention is to reduce red tape and help facilitate and accelerate imports, while increasing local production.
“We have cost an eight-week supply between R1.6 billion and R1.7 billion and after that, the normal average may kick in,” says Nicolau. “But if there is a massive peak we are in dwang.”
READ | Coronavirus: companies making EPP should be among first to open as closure eases – govt plan
PPE worth R400 million has already been purchased, with pipeline funds for another R360 million, according to the BUSA statement released last week. The already purchased stock includes 900,000 sterile gloves; 20,000 face shields; 1.12 million N95-type masks, six million surgical masks for healthcare workers, and 8.5 million surgical masks for patients. This new reserve also includes 200 fans.
The N95-type mask, known as FFP2 masks in South Africa, which uses European specifications, is used in ICU units and by medical and laboratory personnel working in areas where there is a high possibility of contagion. They are also used in some areas in mines, auto body repair shops, and high-risk areas on construction sites. Triple-layer surgical masks are used in operating rooms, while medical personnel working in lower risk areas wear masks that offer a lower degree of protection.
Donations
Another source of PPE equipment came from a call for closing companies, such as mining companies, to donate supplies. “We had a massive response,” says Nicolau.
In South Africa, N95 masks and equivalents are the minimum requirement in the mining sector, according to Ben Smith, co-owner of the Greenline respiratory masks based in Gauteng, one of the few local manufacturers of these masks.
“But the imminent opening of the mines will generate a high demand for supplies and may restrict the available stocks for the health sector,” he warns.
“To be honest, initially we were not, and still are not, in a comfortable space with PPE. The delay meant that … we are competing against 180 other countries for supplies,” says Nicolau.
One of the immediate problems identified was that while high-grade N95 equivalent front-line skins were produced locally, others were not, as they had been cheaper to import.
The advantage that South Africa was affected relatively late by the pandemic is that it has been able to learn from international experience.
“But the downside is that we were late in the supply chain when governments started to tighten exports and we continued to do so,” says Nicolau.
“Another problem was that the cost of PPE in the international market is priced in dollars and demand far exceeded supply.”
South Africa cracked down on the export of some products on March 27, when Commerce and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel issued a notice from the Government Gazette regulating the export of certain equipment and PPE. In terms of the Covid Export Control Regulation -19, certain types of respirators, respirators and equipment cannot be exported without a permit. Also included in the list is the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine that is being tested in clinical trials to treat Covid-19.
Until the current crisis, PPE had been largely restricted to ICU units, but with the pandemic, supplies are needed to cover a much larger number of front-line medical personnel who may come into contact with infected people. “It is essential to make plans for the optimal use of what we have,” says Nicolau.
With calls from Health Minister Zweli Mkhize for everyone to wear a mask in public, guidelines have been provided to the garment industry for the production of masks sold to the public. A list of suppliers of materials that can be used for them has also been distributed.
The manufacturer
Greenline respiratory masks in Gauteng, one of six South African manufacturers of N95-equivalent masks, have increased production and are now “operating six days a week, 24 hours a day,” according to co-owner Ben Smith.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Greenline primarily supplied mining and other industries. Production has now been increased to 1.2 million masks a month and Greenline plans to produce an additional million a month by June when the new equipment is up and running. The company also aims to produce three-layer surgical grade masks for the first time, and produce 1.5 million per day by then.
“Our biggest challenge now is getting the filter material,” Smith told GroundUp in a phone interview. This material is imported and the cost has shot up from $ 36 to $ 176 per square meter due to world demand. US suppliers stopped taking new orders in early February.
Greenline had supplied 250,000 masks to Wuhan, the Chinese city that was the epicenter of the pandemic, in March after an appeal by the Red Cross, Smith says. The company also supplied small quantities of masks to Hong Kong and Italy, but has now stopped exports.
He says the South African government was initially slow to order actions. “We receive inquiries from all over the world, from Angola, Finland, Germany, the British … but nothing from South Africa.”
That all changed on March 27, the day before South Africa announced its first Covid-19-related death, when Greenline received her first call from the Department of Commerce and Industry. Since then, “the government has been very proactive,” says Smith.
Skins that used to cost from R2 to R2.50 each to import now cost between R40 and R50, Smith says. A higher-grade surgical mask, which previously cost between R9 and R12 to import, now costs up to R70 per unit.
Many of South Africa’s intensive care doctors are also anesthetists. Executive Director of the South African Society of Anesthesiologists (SASA), Natalie Zimmerman, says PPE stocks “are just beginning to come to the fore, where they are needed.”
“We are simply putting things in place so that not only do critical nurses, doctors, porters, and all auxiliary staff at the hospital have the PPE they need, but they also know that they will continue to get restocked stocks for patients they still see. “
While it has been impossible to assess the situation regarding nurses and masks across the country, a senior Netcare staff member in Cape Town says there is a “chronic shortage” of masks.
She says the used masks, which previously would have been discarded after use, were resterilized with an ultraviolet machine and returned to the user the next day.
This was denied by Dr. Anchen Laubscher, medical director of the Netcare group. He said the group may consider sterilization and reuse of N95 masks in the future only. This was based on an FDA-approved process backed by studies conducted at Duke University, he says.
“Although these studies support up to 50 reuses, Netcare, by contrast, focuses on only five reuses. Ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide fogging are widely used worldwide to effectively sterilize N95 masks, and as with all of these issues Netcare will only be guided by accredited studies. “
So far Netcare has spent R300 million on “appropriate additional personal protective equipment” to ensure the safety of personnel “while working on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he says.
Stolen masks
A doctor working at a major private hospital in Cape Town says he had arrived to undergo surgery last week only to discover that there were no surgical masks available. CCTV cameras showed that a staff member had stolen all the stock. “It is not as if he took some for his family. The amount suggests they were stolen to sell.”
READ | 3 arrested for truck hijacking carrying medical masks
The status of the mask has been actively discussed on nurses’ Facebook sites, but GroundUp has chosen not to name the people as they could be victims.
A nurse wrote that in a private hospital in Johannesburg, nurses wore the same mask for seven days.
Another nurse wrote that she was expected to wear the same mask for five shifts, which equals 60 hours.
SASA Zimmerman says: “The supply is still not secure enough and it does not feel secure enough. Sometimes this limits access to those who should have access. Sometimes it includes trying solutions like reuse. At this stage, Despite some research and evidence not yet being gathered, there is no guaranteed way to ensure that any PPE that is reused is safe or as effective when it is reused. Until we are certain of this, we do not advocate any effort, as We cannot guarantee the safety of our health workers. “
– Stay healthy and entertained during the national closure. Sign up for our Lockdown Living newsletter. Sign up and manage your newsletters in the new News24 application by clicking on the Profile tongue
[ad_2]
