Hospitals in the Philippines are facing a shortage of Personal protective equipment (PPEs) that is used to protect the health workers treating COVID-19 patients from getting infected by the virus.
Philippine Red Cross chairman and Senator Richard Gordon suggested to nurses and doctors to wear adult diapers to save the supply of PPEs.
Gordon explained that doctors and nurses who are working in intensive care units (ICUs) are not allowed to wear the same PPEs when they left the room to have a toilet break.
“Mag adult diaper yung mga doctor and nurse kasi kapag nasa ICU ka at lumabas ka hindi ka makakabalik ng pareho parin ang suot mo, magbabago ka ng soot, magastos yun” Gordon said in an interview with 24 Oras on March 27.
The Philippine Senator also pointed out that nurses and doctors who treated patients in Wuhan, China have been wearing adult diapers to relieve themselves during their grueling shifts.
“When doctors and nurses are in the ward, they cannot eat, drink or go to the bathroom,” Han Ding, deputy director of Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing, said in Wuhan, the South China Morning Post reported.
To relieve the shortage of PPEs, celebrities and volunteers are donating the said equipment to hospitals.
Those volunteers include fashion designer Michael Leyva and actress Angel Locsin who distributed PPEs to hospitals.