This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 3, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: The ministry of health (MoH) has managed to solve the issue of shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) among healthcare workers who are in contact with Covid-19 patients, according to its director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

However, Dr Noor Hisham said that the ministry now faces the issue of distributing the PPE it has obtained to the respective hospitals in need of the gears, especially in Sabah and Sarawak.

“Indeed, initially we had the issue of PPE shortage, but we have solved the problem. Now, the problem is distributing them to the hospitals and clinics in need of PPE. So, it’s an issue of distribution now. We are trying to address this as soon as possible,” he told reporters yesterday.

He added that the shortage issue was alleviated recently, thanks partly to donations from the Chinese government.

On March 28, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, on behalf of Malaysia, received a consignment from the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Malaysia, Bai Tian, comprising 100,008 units of novel coronavirus nucleic acid diagnostic kit (PCR-fluorescence probing), 100,000 pieces of N95 face masks, 500,000 pieces of surgical masks, 50,000 units of PPE and 200 units of ventilators.