The Federal Government is buying gloves, gowns and goggles for GPs managing patients with suspected coronavirus, but they may take some time to arrive, health officials say.

National COVID-19 incident control room chief health officer Dr Jenny Firman revealed in a webinar for GPs, streamed on Thursday, that the government had begun buying stocks of personal protective equipment.

“We’re buying gowns, gloves, goggles, as well as masks, so they should be available,” she said, although she stressed that delivery schedules were “a bit variable” amid unprecedented global demand.

She also said 3.1 million P2 and surgical masks that arrived in Australia last week had begun to be delivered to primary health networks.