An-Najah News - German and U.S. manufacturers in Europe  see an opportunity more permanently to take on big Asian rivals and bring mask production closer to home as countries scramble for face masks to protect their healthcare workers from the coronavirus.

 According to recommendations here by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control treating a single COVID-19 patient requires the daily use of about 15 so-called N95 masks  .With about 700,000 Europeans living with the infection, that translates into a daily need for about 10 million N95 masks, or more than 3.8 billion a year.
Unlike many manufacturers that have stepped into medical equipment temporarily to meet unexpected soaring demand, Innovatec said it was looking at long term production, aiming to boost output of meltblown polypropylene to enable additional production of 2 billion masks per year.
 
Cedric Ballay,Berry’s General Manager for Health, Hygiene, & Specialties for the region said “We do believe countries will re-localize face mask production given the experience gained from this crisis".