Indonesia Will Produce PPE From Polyester Material

Illustrations (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Indonesia is trying to meet the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers during the corona virus pandemic or COVID-19.

Wiku Sasmito, Chairman of the Expert Team for the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19, said the government had found raw materials for the manufacture of this personal protective equipment. So, this personal protective equipment can be washed and used over and over again.

"We found that substitute raw materials according to WHO standards are quite abundant. These raw materials are produced by the domestic textile industry. The substitute material is polyester," Wiku said in a press conference broadcast on BNPB's YouTube account, Friday, April 3.

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He was sure, when the manufacture of personal protective equipment was produced, it could meet domestic needs. So far, the production of personal protective equipment has always been hampered by raw materials that have to be imported first.

"The national PPE production capacity is around 17 million per month with these substitute raw materials. PPE production is currently supported by at least 31 textile companies and 2,900 national garment industries," he explained.

Previously reported, to protect health workers, there are around 300 thousand personal protective equipment (PPE) that have been distributed throughout Indonesia.

Spokesperson for handling COVID-19, Achmad Yurianto, said that currently the DKI Jakarta area has received an additional 85 thousand PPE specifically for handling COVID-19.

Then PPE was also distributed to West Java as much as 55,000, East Java as much as 25,000, to the Special Region of Yogyakarta as much as 10,000, Bali as much as 12,500, then Banten as many as 10,000.

Furthermore, outside Java and Bali, Yurianto said his party had distributed more than 5,000 PPE to each province in Indonesia.

"This figure is certainly not a number that we think is sufficient and it will stop here because we will continue to send it further," he concluded.