Fighting Covid-19 with local innovations

AS the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage around the globe, local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are meeting demand for diagnosis, treatment and protection solutions with homegrown innovations.

One of these companies, Gill Lab, took an unusual approach to balancing the demand and supply of surgical masks. Instead of setting up yet another mask manufacturing facility, it designed a reusable respirator that can extend the use of a surgical mask by up to six times. More than 100,000 units of the Gill Mask have already been sold worldwide since its launch in April.

Two others, Star Array and Lion TCR, are using capabilities in rapid testing technologies and virus treatments respectively to aid in testing and potentially treating the disease.