ByIANSlife Features

April 16, 2020 (IANSlife) The global COVID-19 pandemic has healthcare professionals at the frontline, braving it out day-after-day as the crisis worsens. As demands for personal protective equipment (PPE) grow, many manufacturers along with luxury and apparel brands step in to meet the demand.

Luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton announced it has launched the production of hundreds of thousands of non-surgical protective masks, along with transforming its Ready to Wear atelier in Paris to create hospital gowns. More than three hundred artisans are mobilized in each unit - to aid in the battle against Covid-19.  In appreciation of the volunteers’ Louis Vuitton resonates its Chairman and CEO, Michael Burke’s words - “As an important French House, Louis Vuitton wishes to commit at its level to producing many thousands of masks that will be distributed within the region, at no charge, to protect those who are most exposed. This production is the fruit of a wonderful collaboration with the regional sector of the textile industry.”

World health agencies across the world are stressing the importance of covering one's face, and it is heartening to see common citizens taking charge and stitching Do-It-Yourself (DIY) masks, some of which have been quite creative.

Back home in India, Karam Industries has made 1,80,000 chemical-splash goggles to be distributed across stakeholders. Sandeep Arora, National Sales Head, told IANSlife, “The world is battling with an extremely dire situation at present. At this point, it is imperative for all businesses and companies to fight against the global pandemic together in unity. There is an increasing demand for vital equipment on daily basis for our essential and hard-working workforce – the healthcare staff and police personnel."

Several apparel brands have come forward to manufacture face masks and even PPE kits to places that need them the most. One such clothing brand, AKS Clothings, is utilising its Gurugram and Delhi factory units to produce over a lakh disposable PPE kits, that they say would be procured by private entities and NGOs. Notably, PPE overalls for an adult comprises of a medical gown or jumpsuit, gloves, face masks, face cover, head cover, shoe covers, and goggles.

"What we manufacture is non-essential in these times; to help boost the PPE infrastructure and to provide some livelihood to our workers, we are manufacturing PPE kits. Although we are working at less than half the capacity of these factories (45 workers as compared to 150, to maintain social distancing), it's good to keep the work going, as the technical procedure of making clothes and making PPE kits is similar" the owners Nidhi Yadav and Satpal Yadav told IANSlife. They added that out of a lakh, 3,000 kits would be donated.

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