New Hong Kong production group aims to give government 150,000 masks a week for battle against coronavirus epidemic

A group aiming to produce 12 million face masks has said the Hong Kong government would get 150,000 a week starting on Thursday, as the city continues to battle against the coronavirus epidemic.

The Hong Kong Institute of Family Education, which has coordinated the production of the new masks, said it would sell another 150,000 masks in the first week to private clinics, a nursing association, non-profit organisations, and the city’s 18 district councils, at HK$2 a mask.

The HK$6.5 million government-backed project aims to distribute masks to frontline workers, especially medical professionals, and the elderly. It said the government’s quota would be distributed by the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office, and the Elderly Commission.

Betty Fung Ching Suk-yee, head of the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office, said the new supply would add to the 700,000 masks supplied by the Correctional Services Department to government-outsourced janitors, who had complained their stock was running out.

However, she said the government had not decided whether to hand over some to medical staff in public hospitals, who are running low on critical supplies.

The newly developed mask can filter 99 per cent of bacterial aerosol droplets measuring three micrometres in size, according to Edwin Cheng Shing-lung, the production line’s director.