Months after the pandemic, health-care workers are already being contaminated with COVID-19.
It was leading a group of local manufacturers to question whether the government might have imported cheaper. But, under-standard personal protective equipment (PPE) from China and elsewhere.
The Department of Health ( DOH) continued to import its PPEs. For instance, coveralls and face masks. Even after local manufacturers had proven their ability to produce affordable EPPs of medical grade that could meet the front line demand of healthcare staff.
It was the government that called for their help. The Department of Trade and Industry asked manufacturers in March.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, to repurpose their facilities in order to make medical-grade PPEs.
Since then, five manufacturers with decades of experience in electronics and garment manufacturing sailed into unchartered waters.
The first is producing PPEs in the middle of a pandemic. And then, formed a new group called the Confederation of Philippine Manufacturers of PPE (CPMP).
With 7,450 direct workers, the group is composed Medtecs International Corp. Ltd., EMS Components Assembly Inc., Reliance Producers Cooperative, Luen Thai International Group Philippines, Inc., and Tacca Industries Pty Ltd.
Production Capacity
The PPE producers did not have the capacities that they now have when they started months ago. After nearly P2 billion or $35 million in investments, CPMP can produce 57.6 million medical grade face masks like KN95s and surgical masks monthly.
According to CPMP Vice Chairman Perry Ferrer, only around 10 million face masks a month are procured by the government from CPMP.
However, the DOH’s demand hovers at a low of 30 million to as much as 80 million per month, he added.
CPMP now has the capacity to make 3 million medical-grade coveralls and isolation gowns monthly, none of them procured by the DOH. The group said it has been selling direct to the Philippine General Hospital and other hospitals instead.
The CPMP has been pressing. With the help of the DTI, to get DBM to procure locally through the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act, or Bayanihan 2, which mandated DBM to prioritize local procurement for medical PPEs.
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