OTTAWA -- Personal protective equipment, or PPE, has been in high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and one grassroots organization is aiming to get as much of it as possible into the hands of the people who need it most.
Conquer COVID-19, a group comprised of doctors, business leaders, and volunteers, held a PPE drive in Ottawa Saturday in collaboration with St. John Ambulance and the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), to collect much needed face masks, gowns, face shields, and other items to keep frontline health-care workers safe as they battle the pandemic head-on.
Organizer Khalid Elgazzar says every donation counts.
"Honestly every piece of equipment counts and is going to make a difference we don’t have a set goal. Anything we get we are going to make sure it gets distributed to the community."
The items will be held and decontaminated before being donated, something he expects will happen by the middle of next week.
"We will house them for a few days, it’s a decontamination process we want to make sure we aren’t sending anything out that’s contaminated," Elgazzar says. "We will take an inventory in the meantime and we going to assess with our professionals in Toronto and here in Ottawa, where the highest need is, and then we will distribute likely in the middle of the week."
Dr. Tonja Stothart, with the Ontario Medical Association, told CTV News she was very pleased with the turnout.
"I am super excited," she said. "It's so heartwarming to see all the cars come flow in and donate the PPE and also the people who have come by to collect the PPE, all of the physicians and doctors, who are going to be going back to their community and taking care of patients, the response has been excellent- it is very heartwarming."
She said one of the biggest concerns is getting this valuable equipment into workers' hands.
"It's not as much a shortage as getting the equipment and PPE out to the people who need it," she said. "For sure we are having trouble securing the normal supply chain acquiring the PPE from the normal avenues has been a challenge for the community as well as the hospital."
Dr. Richard MacLean tells CTV News drives like this will go a long way to help frontline care.
"We have a very tight supply," he said. "I don’t have enough to issue to patients, so we are asking them to bring their own. We are doing as much as we can to provide essential care."
