How much PPE will be enough for Canada?
OTTAWA • A high-profile announcement by the Liberals this week that automotive giant General Motors would make 10 million medical masks omitted a detail that speaks to the long road ahead in Canada’s fight against COVID-19.
Those masks will be made over the next year.
So too will much of the millions of gloves, gowns, and litres of hand sanitizer that are part of the federal government’s bulk buy of crucial personal protective gear needed to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Though goods are being handed out as soon as they do arrive in Canada — 42 plane loads to date, the government said this week — the reality is many of the orders being placed won’t meet the demand created by the current outbreak of COVID-19.
But the bigger issue is the next one.
“The analysis is that there is an unpredictability about the way in which the virus may spread in the coming months,” said federal procurement minister Anita Anand.
“As a result our approach has been to order supplies over and above the requests of the provinces and territories so that if there is a second wave and we do need ventilators, for example, we are prepared.”
At the outset of the pandemic’s arrival in Canada, the issue of how many ventilators Canada had was of pressing concern.
Hospitals and the public watched in horror as shortages in other countries of the key piece of equipment needed to treat the most severe form of the illness had devastating results.
It was then, back in midmarch, that public health officials and governments began locking down Canada, asking people to stay home to curb the spread of COVID-19 and buy time for Canada’s health-care system to prepare.
Hospitals, provinces and the federal government scrambled to order the equipment. Nearly 30,000 ventilators were ordered by Ottawa alone, but only 203 have arrived so far.
An Ottawa-based firm has estimated demand for disposable masks alone will be upwards of 3.3 billion over the next year.
Anand said Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of new masks have since arrived and quality assurance reviews have been bolstered.