WATCH | This is how much protection health-care workers need to keep safe from Covid-19

Health-care workers from around the globe are facing a serious shortage of personal protective equipment as they battle Covid-19, and many are expressing their concerns.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) stressed that the shortage of personal protective equipment, such as masks and surgical gear, was putting more lives at risk from Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.

The organisation called on industries and governments to step up manufacturing by 40% to meet rising global demand

“Without secure supply chains, the risk to health-care workers around the world is real,” said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“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.”

In SA, the EFF has warned that the shortage of personal protective equipment and clothing is one of the most urgent and pressing challenges to fight and defeat the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If we are to observe the global trend of the pandemic in those countries battling with the disease, most of their health professionals become victims of this highly contagious disease,” said the EFF.

The party said public health-care workers deserved the same protection as their counterparts in the private sector.

“They are forced to reuse the same N95 face masks over and over again. We have also received complaints that some clinics, especially in rural areas, lack basic infrastructure such as running water and proper sanitation.”

On Twitter, UK actor Andrew Bloch shared a video showing what equipment medical professionals needed to wear before working around coronavirus patients.

The equipment included two face masks, namely the surgical mask and the N95 respirator.

Watch the video below.