The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacts women. Seven out of 10 of health-care jobs in the Philippines comprise of women. During this pandemic, most of those who are on the frontlines of patient interactions make up of female health workers. With no vaccine yet, the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits make their health more vulnerable as frontliners.
The Center for Women’s Resources said it has joined the call of the medical frontliners to provide them expeditiously with PPE.
Health-care workers need to be equipped with protective gear to prevent infection. We have already heard of tragic deaths among health-care professionals due to lack of protective gears like N95 respirator masks when dealing with patients with COVID-19.
As of April 8, there have been 12,000 sets of PPEs distributed in 20 hospitals across Luzon. If one hospital uses up to 200 to 500 PPE per day, the distributed equipment will only last for a day or two.
According to the Health Alliance for Democracy, health workers still buy their own masks or use the donated improvised PPE from individuals and non-governmental organizations.
