[tomp]

How do you know that? What if there was a factory running at less than 100% physically capacity? You could in theory ramp up production very quickly simply by hiring more people, but you won’t, because doing so incures costs (training them, giving them PPE, ...) and you can’t be sure about your income (price rises are banned, exporting is outlawed, your product might even be confiscated).

[TeMPOraL]

Because there were PPE manufacturers giving interviews in the press in which they pointed out that the last time they did expand their production during the crisis, the crisis ended and the demand evaporated before they've managed to recoup their investment - so they're reluctant to do the same now, unless governments sign on with long-term repeat purchase contracts.