Singapore restarts mask production to secure supply for frontline medical staff

Singapore

SINGAPORE has restarted local production of medical-grade surgical face masks to ensure supply for its medical workers in the frontline fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Wednesday.

But Singapore will still continue to expand and diversify its external sources for masks to meet the needs of its population and to stockpile for the possibility of a second wave of Coronavirus attack, he told local reporters in a Zoom interview on Wednesday.

Mr Chan said Singapore's position is to keep working with other countries to keep supply chains open rather than resort to protectionism.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry reported two more deaths from Covid-19, taking the death toll to 20. It also reported 788 new cases, 759 of whom are foreign workers from dormitories. Eleven cases were Singaporeans or permanent residents.

Mr Chan also announced that the government will give Singaporeans and residents improved reusable face masks in its third mask distribution to get everyone to mask up in the effort to tame the spread of the virus. This is expected to take place in end-May, near the end of the circuit breaker period.

The masks can again be collected at community centres and residents' committee centre. But this time, they can also be collected from vending machines.

Mr Chan said Singapore has made securing face masks, especially medical-grade surgical masks for healthcare workers, a top priority. It has worked with foreign partners to supply the surgical masks, but when one of the partners failed to fulfil its contractual obligations, Singapore has quickly started its own production.

The minister added that several local enterprises were roped in to help and ST Engineering's Innosparks was key in making it possible. The latter developed the N95 mask in 2015 to protect Singaporeans from the haze. It is believed to have also produced medical-grade masks but the focus has been on N95 masks.

Pilot production of the surgical mask started in mid-February and has since been ramped up. The goal is to build up a sufficient stockpile of masks to cater to the needs of all healthcare workers in Singapore so as to ensure it has a sustainable healthcare system, according to Mr Chan.

Surgical masks available to the public will continue to be sourced from multiple countries, he said.

Despite challenges in securing raw materials and machines and the short-notice given, Innosparks' senior vice-president Gareth Tang said the company is "largely on track" to meet the goal of meeting the need of Singapore's healthcare system.

"We have started mask fitting exercises at the hospitals at the frontline and started forwarding our goods to the frontline as well," he said.

Mr Chan added: "We've arrived at a reasonable point where we're quite confident of taking care of our medical workers in Singapore."

Meanwhile, in a separate media release, A*Star announced it is working with a Singapore textile company, Ramatex, to design reusable masks. Production started in April and the masks may be among those distributed to the public.

Singapore gaming company Razer has also reportedly begun production of its fully automated mask manufacturing line last month. It has the capacity to produce around 5 million masks monthly and the capacity "can be scaled up if required".