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Romania can provide 50 pct of the protective masks needed from domestic production by the end of the year, Economy Minister Virgil Popescu said on Wednesday evening at the private broadcaster Digi24.
"I believe that a higher degree of integration of production would be beneficial in Romania and I give you a simple example: I said it in the state of emergency, I also said it in the state of alert, that we want to integrate the complete production of protective masks in Romania. I did it. It's been integrated with that company in Maramures, through a credit guaranteed by the Romanian state, and put into operation the installation of the production of both the outer and filter material for the mask. So we can say that currently Romania can produce a whole product. We don't need imports for that product anymore. Everything that can happen in Romania at the moment until the end of the year, with everything that can be put into operation, we can go to 50 pct of Romania's masks' necessary," Popescu said.
He pointed out that this requirement was calculated at the maximum level, in the sense that everyone follows the rules and a mask changes every 4 hours, while the children would change them every two hours.
"The need is very high, I think about the maximum need, but we all know that we do not change a mask every four hours and that sometimes we keep it the next day. A lot of people can't afford them, and there are also the canvas masks, in reusable material, which are washed, and they reduce consumption," explained the Economy minister.
As regards the disinfectants, Popescu stated that Romania "is dealing with the production of biocidal products, but acknowledged that there are currently no laboratories certifying these biocidal products.
He claimed that during the state of emergency and alert, the accreditation solution was found with the army laboratories, but in a normal period Romania must have a laboratory structure that allows the certification of basic products.
