April 15 (SeeNews) - Romanian military equipment supplier Romarm and textiles manufacturer Techtex will start producing surgical and respirator-type protective face masks, the economy ministry said, as the number of coronavirus cases increased.
Romarm will be fitted with three production lines for surgical masks and by the end of the month it will be able to manufacture 500,000 units per day, the ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.
"The necessary equipment for producing FFP type 2 respirator masks will arrive after Easter and will then be installed in a Romarm factory," energy and economy minister Virgil Popescu said.
Romania has confirmed 6,879 cases of the coronavirus infection as of April 14, up from 6,633 a day earlier, as 344 people have died from it, the authorities said on Tuesday.
Two production lines for surgical masks have already been installed at Techtex's factory in Osorhei, Bihor county, Virgil Popescu said in a social media post on Tuesday. The company will make 350,000 regular surgical masks per day, and starting next week will be equipped with a production line for FFP type 2 respirators destined for medical staff.
By the end of April, Techtex is expected to manufacture 150,000 respirator masks per day.
Techtex is part of Romanian furniture textiles manufacturing group of companies Taparo.
State-owned Romarm was set-up in 2000 by the most important manufacturing plants from Romania's defence industry and is the largest supplier of military equipment, ammunition and maintenance services in Romania.
Virgil Popescu said in a televised statement broadcast by local Digi 24 earlier this month that the production of protective face masks can reach 1 million units per day starting from April 15.