Virus fight at risk as world's medical glove capital struggles with lockdown

FILE PHOTO: A worker monitors a production line at a Top Glove factory in Meru outside Kuala Lumpur, June 25, 2009. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad/File Photo

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Disposable rubber gloves are indispensable in the global fight against the new coronavirus, yet a month's lockdown in stricken Malaysia where three of every five gloves are made has upended the supply chain and threatens to hamstring hospitals worldwide.

The world's biggest maker of medical gloves by volume, Top Glove Corp Bhd, has the capacity to make 200 million gloves a day, but a supplier shutdown has left it with only two weeks' worth of boxes to ship them in, its founder told Reuters.