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Key medical gloves factories cutting staff by 50% amid coronavirus

Published:Tuesday | March 24, 2020 | 4:03 PM
Volunteers Keshia Link (left) and Dan Peterson unload boxes of donated gloves and alcohol wipes from a car at a drive-up donation site for medical supplies at the University of Washington to help fight the coronavirus outbreak Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Malaysia’s medical gloves factories, which make most of the world’s critical hand protection, are operating at half capacity just when they’re most needed, The Associated Press has learned.

Health care workers snap gloves on as the first line of protection against catching COVID-19 from patients, and they’re crucial to protecting patients as well.

But medical-grade glove supplies are running low globally, even as more feverish, sweating and coughing patients arrive in hospitals by the day.

Malaysia is by far the world’s largest medical glove supplier, producing as many as three out of four gloves on market.

The industry has a history of mistreating migrant workers who toil over hand-sized moulds as they’re dipped in melted latex or rubber, hot and exhausting work.

The Malaysian government ordered factories to halt all manufacturing starting March 18.

Then, one by one, those that make products deemed essential, including medical gloves, have been required to seek exemptions to reopen, but only with half of their workforce to reduce the risk of transmitting the new virus, according to industry reports and insider sources.

The government says companies must meet domestic demand before exporting anything.

The Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association this week is asking for an exception.

“Any halt to the production and administrative segments of our industry would mean an absolute stoppage to glove manufacturing and it will be disastrous to the world,” said association president Denis Low in a statement released to Malaysian media.

He said their members have received requests for millions of gloves from about 190 countries.

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