Expert: Government will need ‘millions of masks will be needed’ before re-opening economy
The Government will need to order “millions and millions” of face masks if it is to have any chance of re-opening the economy over the summer, including building sites and parts of the hospitality industry, a leading expert has warned.
Edgar Morgenroth at Dublin City University Business School said that the Government will have to act quickly to meet the huge demands for face masks to protect the lives of HSE medical staff and care home workers but also for hundreds of thousands of workers as they return to work in the coming months.
Prof Morgenroth formerly worked at the Economic and Social Research Institute and is a leading expert on international supply chains.
He said hundreds of thousands of people working outside, as well as office workers indoors, will require a minimum of three masks a day to keep safe.
His remarks come as the HSE’s chief executive Paul Reid said it is in discussions with suppliers around the world to increase its order for face masks used by the HSE to 1.2m a day during the Covid-19 crisis from the 200,000 daily masks needed under normal conditions.
The negotiations are designed to secure a “rapid and very quick supply” from across the world, Mr Reid told RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week programme.
However, Prof Morgenroth told the Irish Examiner that the Government will have to order “millions and millions” of face masks and search for contracts because the masks will play such an important role in health and getting the economy back to work.
“You would need millions and millions of these masks and everyone else in Europe will be looking for them,” he said. “Some people are making them for themselves but they are in short supply.”
He said the EU’s European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control urges governments to consider advising the public to wear face masks when “visiting busy, closed spaces, such as grocery stores, shopping centres” but that its advice also includes that healthcare workers should get priority “over the use in the community”.
Prof Morgenroth also questioned the road map the Government is following in the crisis.
“Is it a strategy to go to zero cases in which case we will be locked down for a very long time or is it a strategy to get the cases down to a level at which the health services can cope? They should elaborate on that,” he said.
