GENEVA, March 4. /TASS/. An estimated 89 million medical masks and 76 million examination gloves are required each month for the response to the new coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a news release on Tuesday.
"WHO calls on industry and governments to increase manufacturing by 40 per cent to meet rising global demand," the statement said. "The World Health Organization has warned that severe and mointing disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) — caused by rising demand, panic byuing, hoarding and misuse — is putting lives at risk from the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases," the statement added.
"Based on WHO modelling, an estimated 89 million medical masks are required for the COVID-19 response each month. For examination gloves, this figure goes up to 76 million, while international demand for goggles stands at 1.6 million per month," the statement continued.
The statement quoted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as saying: "Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We can't stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first."
The Chinese authorities registered an outbreak of the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV in the city of Wuhan. Cases of new coronavirus were confirmed in more than 70 other countries, including in Russia. The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Outside of China, most cases of the new coronavirus were reported in South Korea and Italy.
According to latest reports, over 2,900 people died from the coronavirus, while the total number of confirmed cases surpassed 90,000, and around 47,200 people recovered. Outside of China, over 120 people died from the new coronaivurs, and the number of confirmed cases is almost 9,000.