TTMA makes PPE for covid19 frontline

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical for frontline healthcare workers battling against the spread of covid19 to do their jobs safely and effectively. But as supply chain disruptions, shortages and even geopolitics stymie their delivery, local ingenuity is stepping in to fill the gap. The TT Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) and the University of the West Indies have partnered to make PPE locally. UWI will provide the designs and specifications and manufacturers – many of whom have had to modify their operations since stay-at-home orders were imposed last month – will put their factories to use making PPE.

“It’s a joint effort and it’s our way to give back,” TTMA vice president Ryan Lewis told Business Day.

Local manufacturers have already started making face shields, face masks and aerosolisation hoods, and soon, they hope to start making N95 masks. Label House, where Lewis is a director, is one of those companies already on board, repurposing some of its raw materials to make face shields. The shields are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the same material used to make plastic bottles. Lewis said the TTMA is also working with a company called Thermoplast, which uses recycled plastic to make the PET sheets. The shields are lined using insulation foam donated by Peake’s and used in air conditioning installation – and as a bonus, it’s also anti-microbial.

One challenge, though, is turnover. Lewis said because of lockdown restrictions and the stay-at-home order for non-essential staff, he’s working with a skeleton crew of just four people versus his usual 50, so his team can only make about 100 shields per day.

For the facemasks, he said, UWI is trying to get its prototype approved by the Ministry of Health. Those will be distributed to citizens around the country. The aerosolisation hoods are plastic boxes that resemble an incubator for babies, placed over the patient’s head to protect health care professionals from possibly contaminated stray droplets while trying to do tests and observations.

“We’ve started getting requests from people who want to buy them for their own companies but that’s separate and apart from what we are doing here. We are trying to raise funds for frontline protection.”

Proudly T&T

While this is obviously an emergency relief effort in the immediate circumstance, he noted that it could prove to be a longer-term opportunity for manufacturers in TT to expand their product lines, perhaps even making PPE to supply the Caricom region well after the covid19 pandemic finally lets up. “We are retooling our lines. How can manufacturers (contribute) as well as come out of the crisis differently,” he said.

In the meantime, though, the TTMA is trying to raise money to give the project momentum. The ultimate goal is to make 50,000 face shields by the end of May, as well as several thousand face masks and N95 respirators, and at least 50 aerosolisation hoods. The face shields will cost at least $1 million, Lewis said, while the other PPE could cost anywhere from $500,000 to another million dollars.

“The N95 masks, for example, require a specialised mould. That alone is going to cost $300,000. So we are looking at somewhere in the vicinity of $1.5 million to $2 million.”

The TTMA has therefore launched a Proudly TT Covid19 Relief Fund on fundmett.com. Running until the end of May, the goal is to raise the money for this project via crowdfunding, similar to the campaign launched for relief two years ago during the devastating Greenvale floods. In fact, Lewis said, the 2,000 masks already produced were funded from the extra cash raised from that project.

Aside from PPE, the TTMA is also working with its members to distribute hand sanitiser to the frontline, notably Angostura, Carib Brewery and SCL Ltd, who have all stepped in the supply cleaning products. Other members have chipped in with dry goods for food hampers, and soon, the TTMA will parter with First Citizens to launch the Share Care card, a pre-loaded debit card that can be used to buy groceries, and will be distributed to families in need.

The manufacturing sector, then is keeping busy and adapting to this volatile time. This project is just one way companies are trying to keep staff active and employed. “It’s not like this is bringing in revenue. But we are keeping people employed and prioritising what we need.”

For the sector as a whole, only certain companies have been deemed essential, and even then, not everyone working is an essential worker. It’s certainly not business as usual, he said, including challenges with exporting product. Small and medium enterprises are the ones suffering the most and the TTMA is worried about how people will survive. “There’s a genuine concern about what is going to happen to our economy. It will contract. There will be a domino effect so long as (lockdown protocols) remain. It’s a difficult environment. Even the companies deemed essential are worried.”

There’s no going back to the old way of doing business. Social distancing, for example, is likely to stay around for a long time. “This is an opportunity. A wake-up call. We have to seize the opportunity and change the way we do business. If we are waiting for May 1 for things to go back to normal, we will have learnt nothing.”

Those interested in contributing the TTMA’s crowdfunding campaign can visit https://fundmetnt.com/campaign/394/proudlytt-covid-19-donation-drive