Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/09/2020
By: Wu Po-wei, Lee Wan-lin and Ko Lin

Taipei, March 9 (CNA) Taiwan is ramping up its production of surgical face masks, with the goal of reaching 10 million per day by next week, using newly acquired equipment, in an effort to meet domestic demand amid the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic, Economics Minister Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said Monday.

With the delivery of the machines, 60 new production lines have been opened at various manufacturing plants across Taiwan, although some of the equipment still needs fine tuning, Shen said.

This week, Taiwan's daily output of surgical face masks is expected to be 9.2 million on average, and when the production lines reach full capacity next week, they will be manufacturing 10 million masks per day in total, he said.

On March 5, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said NT$90 million will be spent to set up another 32 mask production lines, which will eventually help meet the current high demand due to the coronavirus epidemic.    [FULL  STORY]