How COVID-19 is Responsible for Medical Gowns Growth Worldwide?

Hospital gowns demand is rising owing to a rising number of surgical procedures, increased incidence of medical-acquired infections (HAIs), and many initiatives by many players’ of medical gowns. Rising cases of HAIs due to lack of sanitation and prevention are expected to be one of the market’s key growth apart from COVID-19 over the forecast period. For instance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least one in 25 hospitalized patients has an HAI per year. These cases are expected to cause an upsurge in demand for gowns in hospitals.

Hospital gowns typically protect against pollution and reduce the chance of HAIs by preventing bacterial and other microbial pathogens from reaching the patient’s body. These are designed with barrier effect properties, low particle release levels, purity, and tensile strength. These also offer protection against transmission of the disease, microbial transmission, and fungal transmission. Many surgeons also suggest wearing gowns during surgical procedures for patients. This factor is thus expected to drive the demand in the same time frame.

Owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, there is a huge shortage of medical gowns in the first quarter of 2020. In January, the U.S. recalled 9 million Chinese-made surgical gowns owing to questionable sterility; led to the shortage. More than 9 million gowns are included in the recall, including 7.7 million that was distributed to 2,807 facilities across the country. In January 2020, Cardinal Health acts on procedure packs with affected surgical gowns and supply shortage

Premier Inc. released survey results finding that 86%of U.S. hospitals and health systems are concerned about their supply of different personal protective equipment (PPE) as the global spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus strains the supply chain. About 80% of PPE comes from Asia, where many nations have stopped exports.

In the past few years, the demand for hospital gowns has increased due to the growing number of surgical procedures and rising incidences of hospital-acquired infections. Presently, the demand for hospital gowns is increasing at an exponential rate to tackle the global COVID—19 pandemic. Hospital gowns have emerged as one of the most essential medical supplies in this pandemic. The risk of short of supply is one of the critical issues in front of the health systems in North America. Many of the U.S. clothing manufacturers have initiated the production of hospital gowns and other personal protective equipment. In April 2020, Ford has announced to manufacture 1.3 million gowns from airbag type material, with assistance from its supplier, Joyson Safety Systems. Moreover, a North Carolina based lifestyle apparel company, Kontoor Brands, Inc. has begun production of approximately 10,000 disposable isolation gowns and 50,000 Level 1 patient gowns and for clinicians to health systems that are treating COVID—19 patients.

With all such changing market dynamics, the market is projected to experience an exponential spike in the year 2020. As per several sources and statistical models, the impact of the COVID—19 pandemic is expected to be continued till 2022/ and some study think it may continue its some impact for the next 4-5 years. Many of the major executives have stated that it will take at least 24 months for the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines. Currently, shortage of gown in 2020 has also led to an increase in the pricing, however, in the next 1-2 years, the pricing will get stabilize owing to which the units of the gown will be increased significantly. As soon as the medical gown will be available in the market, all the hospitals will start to be holding the extra stocks; increasing the number of units in the next 1-2 years.

Thus, as per our analysis, the market will continue to follow the same trend. In 2020, the year on year growth rate is expected to be significantly high. Later, in 2021 and 2022, the same trend will be continued. And then, from 2023 to 2026 the year on year growth will try to become steady.