More than 15 million masks produced in Iran

By Trend

Iran's production units have produced more than 15 million masks, said Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, Trend reports citing IRNA.

"The government priority is to facilitate the needs of the health care network, and the Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade agenda is to increase the production of various types of masks. So far, 15,266 million masks have been produced in the country," said Hossein Modares Khyabani.

"These are three-layer and N95 masks; 14,887 million masks have been distributed, while the rest will be delivered to distributing companies of the Food and Drug Organization," Khyabani added.

"The statistics show the production of antiseptics has increased more than eight times," he said adding that the production units in the country produced more than 6 million liters of ethanol alcohol and around 13.4 million liters of alcohol have been distributed in the healthcare network.

"The mass production of the masks, alcohol and antiseptics became possible due to cooperation of many industries including automakers that used their technologies," Khyabani said.

"The Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade also imported items for the needs of health care system from foreign markets despite the sanctions and limitations including 16,15 million of N95 and three-layer masks, 540,000 gowns and 1,280 liters of ethanol alcohol," he added.

The ministry has allocated 6.6 million euros to import medical items via barter and imposed a temporary ban on the export of basic materials needed to combat coronavirus, he said.