Personal Protective Equipment Inventory for Brazil’s Public Hospitals Is Zeroed

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Weeks before the expected peak of the novel coronavirus in Brazil, the Ministry of Health is out of stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks and gloves, to distribute to health professionals.

The portfolio awaits the result of negotiations with suppliers from abroad. Replacement of inventory was expected to be forwarded later on Thursday night, April 2nd. The details were confirmed by the Ministry of Health.

The government has already distributed approximately 40 million protection items to the states. A further 720 million products are expected, 200 million of which are masks, but there is still no outcome from negotiations.

According to state secretaries, some regions have more and some lesser stocks, but the Ministry has so far delivered protection equipment. A request from SUS managers is to use airplanes, including those of Brazil’s Air Force (FAB), to expedite the shipment of products.

Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said on Wednesday, April 1st, that Brazilian government procurement contracts with companies in China for equipment were canceled after the United States sent over 20 cargo planes to purchase the same items.

“Our purchases, which we had hoped to fulfill in order to supply them, many have been canceled,” Mandetta said.

Mandetta said the scenario for purchases is unsafe. “I will only believe in once it is inside the country, in my hands. Sometimes the issue is: you have the money, but you don’t have the product.”

The Minister of Health outlined an extremely difficult scenario for purchasing basic protective supplies and recommended the population to stop buying disposable masks and make their own protective item, with cloth and elastic bands. “Today, we are very concerned about the regularization of inventory of such equipment,” said Mandetta.

Industry representatives say they have already alerted the federal government to submit its proposal to the market soon – otherwise it could fall behind in the global race for products against the pandemic.

The Brazilian industry has been trying to capitalize on the drop in cases in China to import hospital products from there. “Of course we will dispute this with Europe, USA, and other countries,” said Franco Pallamolla, president of the Brazilian Association of Medical, Dental, Hospital and Laboratory Articles and Equipment Industry (ABIMO), to the state.

Ventilators

The government has sealed the purchase of 15,000 “microprocessor lung” type ventilators with capacity to ventilate adult and pediatric patients.

The purchase cost R$1.014 billion and the supplier is “Santos-Produtos do Brasil (Macau) Companhia de Investimento e de Comércio LDA”, according to the publication in the Federal Official Gazette on Thursday.

Source: Exame