Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos state, says the
“rumour” of shortage of personal protective equipment (PPEs) for health workers
is not unfounded.
He said this at a press briefing on Sunday, while addressing
concerns on the consequences of the shortage of medical supplies needed to
fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said PPEs are medical consumables and are important for
health workers handling COVID-19 patients, and that with the increase in the
number of persons who have tested positive for the virus, there will be a
shortage.
As at 11:55pm on May 2, 2020, a total of 1,068 Lagos
COVID-19 cases had been recorded in Lagos.
“Shortage is not a rumour. If there are no PPEs, there are
no PPEs, and the truth about the matter is these are consumables. Even if you
buy 10,000, as long as people are using them, as long as people are testing
positive, and you’re having a lot more medical personnel on the line, you’ll
run short of it,” he said.
“But the question now is how quickly do you ensure that you
re-order? These are consumables; it’s like you’re using your masks. They’re
one-off use; they’re not for repeated use. So, we’ll continue to buy.
“The thing you need to help us with is to tell a few of our
suppliers that this is not the time to profit unnecessarily. These are things
that when we started, we bought at N3,000, N4,000, now it’s N15,000, N20,000.
People are unduly just taking advantage of it and even when you tell them to go
and bring, it’s all stories again.
“So, one of the things we’re looking at is we’re looking
inward now to see if we can develop capacity internally and see if our local
tailoring companies can be ingenious enough to also solve it and the
conversation is going very well, if I dare say.”
He asked Lagosians to endeavour to show concern for COVID-19
patients and to refrain from stigmatising them when they recover and want to
return to their communities from the isolation centres.
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