Five million items of vital personal protective equipment (PPE) have now been distributed to frontline staff by the City of Wolverhampton Council since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last March.
They include face masks, gloves, eyewear, aprons, gowns and gallons of hand sanitiser and have been given to local care providers, health workers and funeral directors as well as to council social care workers, bin crews, rapid testing teams and leisure, education, transport and housing staff to enable them to continue delivering essential services.
The council has purchased millions of items of PPE through the pandemic, and also received thousands of donations from businesses and individuals who responded to a city-wide appeal last spring. Supplies are now being bolstered by regular deliveries from the Government, with the five millionth item delivered to Bradley Reablement Centre this week.
Councillor Linda Leach, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Services, said: “Despite a global shortage of personal protective equipment throughout the pandemic, we’ve continued to ensure a steady flow of vital PPE to our city’s frontline workers. This is helping to keep them, and the people they care for or support, safe from this deadly virus.
“We’ll continue to work as quickly as we can to get PPE out to the people who need it, whether they work for the council, local care providers or other organisations or individuals who have found it hard to get PPE through their usual channels.
“We have now provided an incredible five million items, which shows just how important this element of our Covid-19 response has been, and I’d like to thank everyone who is continuing to work so hard to make PPE available to the individuals and organisations which need it.
“This includes our Adult Services Commissioning team, Health and Safety team, Public Health staff, Resilience team and Procurement colleagues who, together with the Community Equipment Service, provided a one council approach to the process.”