19 million items of PPE delivered by Council during pandemic

Around 19 million items of personal protection equipment have been delivered by Swansea Council to staff working in social care and schools since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The huge logistical operation of distributing masks, aprons, gloves, goggles, hand sanitiser and other items to locations across the city has been run by a small team of council staff managed by Mark O’Neill and Mark Davies from the Civic Centre.

It has ensured that the council’s care homes and domiciliary care workers, along with those in the private sector as well as all of Swansea’s schools, have been well stocked to help to prevent the spread of the virus.

The PPE is funded by the Welsh Government but distributed to 220 locations across Swansea by the council on a monthly basis.

David Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Delivery and Operations, said: “The last 10 months have thrown many challenges at us and our staff have responded amazingly by quickly adapting in rapidly changing circumstances.

“The procurement team typifies this and has really shown that in times of greatest need this council is here for the people of Swansea.

“It has been a major logistical challenge to keep supplies of the right kind coming in at the right time.

“It’s a job that’s still continuing and just one of the ways in which the council has been transforming what it does during the pandemic for the people of Swansea.”

Since the outbreak began the council has delivered more than four million face masks to internal and external social care staff along with almost 10 million gloves and four million aprons.

These figures do not include other items of PPE along with the supplies that have gone out to schools.

Cllr Hopkins added: “It has been a huge effort and I would again like to thank the team for their continued hard work in helping to keep people in Swansea safe.”

(Lead image: Karolina Grabowska / Pexels.com)