Despite Curtailed Healthcare Operations, PPE Demand Rising in COVID-19 Times

ANGELS CAMP, Calif. - May 2, 2022 - PRLog -- The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, which struck the world in December 2019, is still going strong, despite lockdown, movement restriction, and social distancing measures. Beginning in Wuhan, China, it has spread to much of Asia, Europe, North America, and almost every other region. By February 17, 2021, more than 110 million people had become infected and over 2 million died of it around the world! This disease put an unprecedented strain on the global healthcare industry, which suddenly found itself alarmingly short of several essential supplies.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the official name of the COVID-19 virus given by the World Health Organization (WHO), is an airborne virus that travels to the lungs via the nose. This is why preventing oneself from inhaling particles that have come out of someone's cough or sneeze has become most important. Resultingly, hospital staff, delivery persons, hotel employees, and other people who have to interact with many more are purchasing PPE items, such as N95 masks, surgical masks, surgical gloves, gowns, goggles/face shields, and examination gloves.

All over the world, regular departments at hospitals, such as cosmetics, surgery, and internal medicine, were shut down and all the resources were pulled to COVID-19 duty. Additionally, as strong restrictions were put on the movement of people, except for vital purposes, hotels were forced to shut down, and many of them were temporarily converted to isolation centers. This was because due to the alarming rate at which cases rose in 2020 and still are in some countries, the available hospital beds become severely insufficient.

To fulfill the demand for PPE items (https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/personal...), their manufacturers are inking contracts with private healthcare organizations and governments, while many entities that earlier had nothing to do with PPE are entering the fray. For instance, in April 2020, the Department of Defense of the U.S. gave $133.0-million contracts for N95 respirators, including a $29.0-million contract to Owens & Minor, $76.0-million contract to the 3M Company, and $27.4-million contract to Honeywell International Inc.

Therefore, as COVID-19 continues to affect humanity and long after it is gone, the demand for PPE items will keep increasing.