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<p>Since the start of the pandemic, we have provided an emergency supply of personal
protective equipment (PPE) to the adult social care sector through the PPE portal,
Local Resilience Forums (LRFs), the National Supply Disruption Response, as well as
by supplying PPE to wholesalers for onward sale to the adult social care sector. Recognising
the increase in cost and demand for PPE this year, in the recently published Adult
Social Care Winter Plan the Government committed to the provision of free PPE for
adult social care providers for COVID-19 needs until March 2021.</p><p> </p><p>Since
25 February 2020 the Department has distributed over 4.9 billion PPE items for use
by health and social care services. This includes 252 million items to designated
wholesalers for onward sale to adult social care providers, as well as 209 million
items to LRFs. Since 28 September 2020 over 33.8 million items of PPE have also been
distributed to local authorities that no longer use LRFs.</p><p> </p><p>As of 18 November,
over 19,500 adult social care providers, including care homes and domiciliary care
providers, have registered with the PPE portal to receive free PPE to meet the increased
need arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to and including 15 November, we estimate
that over 310 million items have been delivered to adult social care providers through
the PPE portal. This includes over 190 million items to adult residential care providers
and over 120 million items to adult domiciliary care providers via the portal.</p>
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