Paper: Estonia prepares for second wave of coronavirus
Estonia, which is gearing up for a potential second wave of coronavirus infection, now possesses a supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) three times bigger than it had in April, Postimees reported on Wednesday.
The paper wrote that with a supply like this, there will be no market failures in the event of a new spread of the infection and it will not be necessary to close down the society as extensively as during the past emergency situation.
All the stocks of PPEs acquired during the emergency situation have arrived in Estonia and, after necessary procedures concerning the last of them have been completed, the items will now be sent to the central national stockpile.
Mihkel Lendok, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, said: "The national framework procurement organized via the State Shared Service Center is currently under evaluation and since it was an international procurement, there were also several foreign tenderers involved in addition to local ones."
Therefore, a more in-depth evaluation is needed and one cannot move on to smaller tenders within the framework procurement right away, he said.
in June, the government allocated the Ministry of Finance €13 million to obtain one month's supply of PPEs. The storage of that supply costs €336,000 a year.
Lendok added: "As regards the amounts, the government decided to proceed from an A3 scenario suggested by the Health Board, according to which there will be cumulatively 125-150 patients per 100,000 residents in 14 days."
The A3 scenario means that the need for PPEs will be three times bigger than the amount used in April. Over half of that need is already met with supplies from earlier procurements and leftovers from the spring, the spokesman said.
Lendok explained a total of 139 institutions, which are expected to procure one month's worth of PPEs also for themselves, are taking part in the procurement where the state will acquire the missing portion of the necessary stock. These additional stocks will offer security that with a supply for 1+1 months, there will be no market failure and it will not be necessary to close down Estonian society as extensively as during the past emergency situation.
Lendok said: "As a large number of tenderers in the procurement demonstrates, the situation on the markets has eased and also prices have come lower."
Right now the ministry possesses over half of the necessary stocks for the imagined scenario.
Lendok said: "The procurement of the remaining part has to wait until the endorsement of the results of the framework procurement, and we hope to move forward with it as quickly as possible. It has to be kept in mind, however, that it will take place in the framework set forth under law."
The process is currently in the phase of qualification of tenderers.
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Editor: Katriin Eikin Sein