Doobay Medical Centre donates 1 million masks to Health Ministry

The Doobay Medical and Research Centre on Friday mobilised several donors to assist the Health Ministry, by contributing one million masks to aid in the COVID-19 fight.

The donors in this venture included Demerara Distillers Limited, Ganesh Parts, Gafoors and Najab Trading. The one million masks were handed over to the Health Ministry at the Materials Management Unit at Diamond, on the East Bank of Demerara.
Chief Executive Officer of DDL, Komal Samaroo shared some insight on the donation, noting that it will benefit both the public and health workers.
“There are two aspects of this donation. First of all, there is 900,000 three-ply masks for use for the general public. Secondly, there is 100,000 four-ply masks and 9000 face shields to be used by health workers in the Ministry of Health so we are supporting the effort in both ways,” Samaroo indicated.
Permanent Secretary Malcolm Watkins would have recognised the challenges in the supply chain of personal protective equipment as he welcomed the contribution. He said the Ministry would also be able to redirect their spending in other critical areas.
“The supply chain for PPEs has become very complex because of the uncertainty of the COVID-19 virus so we’re doing our best to integrate these donations into our supply chain plan so that we don’t incur any form of wastage. We would use these quantities to adjust our spending so that we can use money in other critical areas,” the PS highlighted.