The Coronavirus outbreak is putting every healthcare system in the world in the red, with hospitals around the globe not being prepared for such a high influx of patients. The number one priority right now is securing enough protective gear for hospital workers so that they can be safe while attending to the sick. Therefore BMW Canada made a requests to all the repair shops in its network across the country: to donate all the excess personal protection equipment (PPE) they can spare.
I’m pretty sure that, if you’ve ever been to a paint shop, the moment you saw the protective equipment used for automotive painting, it would look familiar to what doctors and nurses use. That’s because, at least at a first look, the equipment used by both painters and doctors looks the same, as it serves a similar purpose. The aim here is to keep vapors from reaching the person hiding behind that protective gear.
On April 6, BMW Canada issued a letter to its certified repair shops, asking them to assess their stocks of PPE “with a view of, at some point, donating any discretionary quantities to support the COVID-19 national response at your individual local level.” The goal here is to get anything that can help in the right hands. Things like unused masks, gloves, painting suits, safety glasses, masking tape and protective foot covers would sure prove useful.
“We are sure that many of you have been thinking along a similar track,”added BMW in the letter, according to Collisionrepairmag, quoting the aforementioned message from the Bavarian car maker. No matter how ridiculous it may seem, the situation is dire and we need to protect our healthcare professionals if we’re to go through this unfortunate period unscathed. Let’s just hope the toll this pandemic takes on us won’t be too high in the end.
