A “cell” to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep people safe during the Covid-19 pandemic has distributed more than 2.3million items across Suffolk.

The Suffolk Resilience Forum (SRF) set up the team in March, with the cell operating from the county council’s Endeavour House headquarters in Ipswich.

The equipment, which includes masks, gloves and other disposable protective gear, is designed to ensure those in key services can work safely and control the risk of infection.

Areas to have benefited include care settings, social care, special schools, emergency services and health organisations.

More than 1.9m of the items have been distributed for use in the care sector.

However, the PPE team says it will continue to buy more equipment in the coming weeks, as more buildings reopen in the weeks to come as part of the relaxing of lockdown restrictions.

Suffolk’s director for public health, Stuart Keeble, said: “As the pandemic really took hold in late March, it was vitally important that we quickly established a team to source and distribute PPE where it was needed most.

“This was especially important given the increased demand for personal protective equipment across the UK, and the world at that point.

“Suffolk’s team continues to operate and the SRF is keeping a close eye on levels of demand to understand if and when we need to scale back operations.

“With recent national announcements that look to relax some of the social distancing guidelines, locally we are beginning to see fewer cases of Covid-19.

“Whilst things appear to be heading in the right direction, we all need to remain vigilant and stick with the simple measures we can all take to reduce the spread of the virus - washing our hands and maintaining safe social distancing.

“We have worked hard to source and supply PPE equipment where it is needed across Suffolk and have been able to provide PPE to all those who have requested it, to continue to protect residents and staff and reduce the risk of infection.

“Let’s stick with it Suffolk.”