Hong Kong surgical mask manufacturers to begin supplying government from late May under subsidy scheme
- More than 40 million masks will be produced every month once all 20 production lines are at full capacity, according to the commerce bureau
- A mask shortage in the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak prompted the government to roll out a HK$1.5 billion subsidy scheme to encourage local production
Hong Kong manufacturers will begin supplying masks to the government from late May under the city’s local production subsidy scheme, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said on Tuesday.
More than 40 million masks will be produced every month once all 20 production lines are working at full capacity, according to the bureau, with 34.25 million masks supplied to the government and a further 7.65 million sold to the public.
Nine production lines have so far been certified to comply with American Society For Testing and Materials (ASTM) level 1 standards or higher in factors including filtration of bacteria and particles.
Most residents wear face masks in Hong Kong, which has not recorded new cases of Covid-19 for two days as of Tuesday. The city’s tally of infections stands at 1,055 – more than half of them imported – and four related deaths.
The shortage of masks in the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak prompted the government to roll out a HK$1.5 billion (US$193.5 million) subsidy scheme to encourage local production.