Professor Neelika Malavige of the Department of Microbiology, University of Sri Jayawardanapura in collaboration with the World Health Organization Sri Lanka appealed to the public to consider the global shortage of surgical masks and prioritize Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for frontline workers like lab technicians who are running diagnostic tests on COVID-19.
Professor Malavige pointed out that there are number of diagnostic tests carried out in their laboratories concerning the COVID-19.
“Since we use the samples from COVID-19 infected persons it is compulsory that we use clinical N 95 masks. However, there are many people who are stocking these masks unnecessarily. So there is a shortage of these clinical masks for us to carry out our duties. So I kindly request all of you not to over-stock any kind of masks because it will create a shortage for the laboratories to carry out essential services. If we go out of clinical masks we will have to discontinue the diagnostic tests. It will affect the fight against COVID-19,” Professor Malavige also pointed out.
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