What is the current situation?

As you are most likely already aware from numerous news reports, the situation in China and around the world resulting from the recent outbreak of the 2019-nCoV Coronavirus is constantly evolving as health departments gain a better understanding of the new virus and how to contain and prevent it from spreading. 
In order to control the spread of the virus, the Chinese government has extended the Lunar New Year holiday period and advised people to remain at home. This, along with certain local travel restrictions, has meant that many people have yet to return to work, which has impacted supply chains including raw material supply, manufacturing, shipping and a wide range of necessary services etc. The flow on effects from delayed production or shipping has the potential to significantly impact our available stock levels for certain products in the coming months. The outbreak has also resulted in marketplace uncertainty and concern leading to higher than normal demand for certain medical supplies – not just in China, but around the world.

What is Multigate doing?

Multigate is closely monitoring developments as they unfold. We are in constant communication with our partners and suppliers not only in China, but globally to make sure we keep up-to-date with what is happening and to secure our future stock supplies. 
Multigate is committed and doing everything possible to assure supply to our customers especially customers who have forecasted order volumes in place.

In challenging times like this, we will do everything we can to ensure you can continue to operate in a “business as usual” fashion. That is why we have decided to:

• Restrict sales of high demand products/low stock items to existing customers only
• Cap order volumes to agreed forecasted demand volumes

These restrictions are required to discourage panic buying and ensure a fair and equitable distribution of our current stocks between our customers.

Please be assured we are constantly reviewing the situation in China and we will lift this restriction as soon as possible. In the meantime we encourage you to continue to contact us with your requirements so we can see if we can assist you. If we cannot, we will record your interest and get back to you to see if you are still interested in placing and order with us once we are confident that we can supply.

What is a Coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a big group of viruses that cause illnesses such as the common cold, as well as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). The latest outbreak is a new strain of Coronavirus which is believed to have originated from Wuhan in China. It has been given the temporary name “2019-nCoV”.

For more information, please visit the following links.
• https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
• https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov
• https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/coronavirus
• https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-01-20/coronavirus-chinese-pneumonia-mystery-explainer/11882490?section=health