But following on from my post 544, the supply chain obviously has serious problems, and individual areas ARE scrambling round looking for alternative supplies.

I don't think that I am being hyper critical, but this equipment should have been stockpiled because pandemic flu (which uses the same PPE etc as coronavirus) is, by the Governments own documents, the greatest risk to the UK

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52519339