SOE Ministry: 4 Million Face Masks Ready by End of March
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24 March 2020 14:57 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A special staffer for the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Ministry, Arya Sinulingga, said his side planned to accommodate four million pieces of face mask by the end of March. Nevertheless, he opined that it was not adequate to meet the domestic need during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Four million pieces of face mask are not enough, people use 3 pieces a day averagely as they change it every eight hours. So we will produce it and seek from aboard (import),” said Arya during a live broadcast at the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Office in Jakarta, Tuesday, March 24.
Other than masks, Arya added that the SOE Ministry was set to provide personal protective equipment or PPE albeit it has now been scarce.
“Because almost all countries are pursuing the raw materials and others, this is what we will do,” he remarked.
According to Arya, the ministry will initially prepare ten Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test kits imported from Switzerland for detecting the virus. The devices will be distributed to hospitals across ten provinces. “Hopefully, we can obtain [more test kits] from other states,” Arya said.
Arya revealed that the SOE Ministry is cooperating with many private institutions in combating the effects of the coronavirus.
“We have collaborated with several companies, and ten private logistics firms have joined the SOE Ministry to distribute equipment and logistics needs to be sent to regions,” he concluded.
EKO WAHYUDI