New Delhi, Mar 4 (IANS): In the wake of mounting cases of COVID-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called upon the governments and the industry to increase the manufacturing of personal protective equipment.

Director-General of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday tweeted "@WHO calls on industry and governments to increase manufacturing of personal protective equipment by 40% to meet rising global demand due to COVID-19 outbreak and to protect health workers."

Ghebreyesus also added that "without secure supply chains, the risk to health workers fighting COVID-19 around the world is real. Industry & governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions & put measures in place to stop speculation & hoarding."

The world health body had also released a statement earlier. In the statement, it said "Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, prices have surged. Surgical masks have seen a six-fold increase, N95 respirators have trebled and gowns have doubled. Supplies can take months to deliver and market manipulation is widespread, with stocks frequently sold to the highest bidder."

According to the WHO an estimated 89 million medical masks are required for the COVID-19 response each month. For examination gloves, that figure goes up to 76 million, while international demand for goggles stands at 1.6 million per month.

The WHO also said that severe and mounting disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) is putting lives at risk from the new coronavirus and other infectious diseases.