Global masks "crazy": a special mask production competition


At a U.S. Senate Health Committee hearing on March 3, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Cardlake said that if an outbreak occurs in the United States, US medical staff currently needs 3.5 billion masks, and there are now about 35 million masks. He said Only 10%. But according to this calculation, inventory masks only account for 1% of the required;

Recently, South Korea sold a total of 700,000 masks through post offices located in various eups and noodles across the country. Buyers can only buy one set of 5 masks at a time, and the distribution of masks is biased towards the areas of Daegu and Cheongdo where the number of diagnosed surges;

On February 28, the Japanese Nursing Workers Union NCCU began investigating 4043 nursing units across the country and found that in the answer to the question "the mask inventory can be maintained for several days", "there are no more masks" accounting for 18.8%; Within 3 days "accounted for 7.3%; more than half of the units responded that their inventory could only be maintained within 2 weeks ...

As the overseas epidemic lags behind China, the masks around the world are currently out of stock, and governments in various countries have begun operations.

US Secretary of Health and Public Services Alex Azar said in a Senate panel meeting that the number of N95 masks in stock in the United States is 12 million, but medical staff may need 300 million, that is, There is still a gap of more than 200 million.

The Japanese and South Korean governments, which felt pressure from the epidemic earlier, also adopted measures to increase production capacity and limit exports.

On February 21st, the Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan ’s Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko announced that since March, Japan has gradually resumed importing masks from China and other countries and regions, and in April will reach tens of millions of masks per week.

Can the United States, Japan, South Korea, and other more affected countries, like China, withstand the test of mask supply and demand?