Coronavirus: Protective Clothing

(asked on 20th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that sufficient personal protective equipment is available for care workers looking after (a) the elderly and (b) vulnerable people during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 4th May 2020

We are working at pace with wholesalers to ensure a longer-term supply of all aspects of personal protective equipment, including gloves, aprons, facemasks and hand sanitiser.

As of 20 April 2020, we have provided 29 million items of personal protective equipment (PPE) to designated social care wholesalers. This includes 11.4 million facemasks, 13.3 million aprons and 4.2 million gloves. Starting in the week beginning 6 April 2020, we have authorised the release of a further 34 million items of PPE across 38 Local Resilience Forums, including 8 million aprons, 4 million masks and 20 million gloves. These stocks are intended primarily for social care and primary care health services. We have also mobilised the National Supply Disruption Response system to respond to emergency PPE requests.

Further information can be found in the Adult Social Care Action Plan and PPE Plan at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-adult-social-care-action-plan

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-plan

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