Q: What is the current production capacity of masks in China? Can it meet the needs of national epidemic prevention and control?

Responsible comrades of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: China is the world's largest mask manufacturer and exporter, with annual output accounting for about 50% of the world. The maximum production capacity of masks in China is more than 20 million pieces per day. With the spread of the epidemic, the demand for masks has exploded. Even many people in remote rural areas are beginning to put on masks. If everyone is using them, they need to be replaced every day. In the face of such a strong demand, it is reasonable to not keep up with the supply in the short term. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is making every effort to overcome various difficulties and promote production enterprises to work overtime and restore production capacity.

Through this period of effort, the output reached more than 8 million units a day, and the resumption of production and production reached 40%. However, we must see that it takes time to restore or even expand production capacity. In addition to domestic production, we are also promoting international procurement to meet national epidemic prevention and control needs.

Question: Since production capacity is recovering, why are there still many people who cannot buy masks?

Responsible comrades of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: In the face of the rapid spread of the epidemic, each additional mask produced is an extra layer of security protection for the people and medical staff. The competent authorities and related production companies did not dare to slack off, and they accelerated their race against time to ensure the supply of key anti-epidemic materials such as masks. However, due to the suspension of production and holidays during the Spring Festival, the vast majority of workers in related production companies returned to their hometowns, stopped supplying raw materials, and stopped logistics. Temporary recall of employees to resume work and even to urgently expand production capacity. To solve a series of problems such as funding, workers, and raw material supply, objectively requires a cycle.

In addition, there are many non-productive factors that restrict the supply of masks. Such as railway adjustment of some routes, some inter-provincial traffic outages caused by logistics and distribution problems. For example, epidemic situations have appeared in these mask manufacturing enterprises. Local governments have made a large number of purchases, and the amount of outward dispatch is decreasing. To this end, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has established a national temporary reserve system for material prevention and control, which directly allocates materials to key production enterprises, and strives to achieve a national game, especially to ensure supply in Wuhan and other areas in Hubei Province. With the recent gradual recovery of mask production capacity, this tension is expected to gradually ease.

Question: As the world's largest mask manufacturer and exporter, China's annual output accounts for about 50% of the world's total. Why is there not enough reserves for such a large capacity?

Responsible comrades of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: Masks have an expiration date. Whether it is a manufacturer or a hospital, there will not be a large amount of stockpiles during non-special circumstances. For N95 masks, protective clothing, etc., the hospital usually does not have large reserves. On weekdays, they will receive masks according to a certain amount, but this amount is only enough to protect the medical staff themselves. The inventory of surgical masks in many hospitals is about one week.

Question: Faced with the tightness of important supplies such as masks, what measures have the competent authorities taken to rescue them?

Responsible comrades of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia, the party group of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has seriously implemented the important instructions of the central leadership comrades such as General Secretary Jinping and the spirit of the Party ’s Central Committee and the State Council ’s decision-making and deployment requirements. commence to work. After the establishment of the epidemic joint prevention and control working mechanism, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as the head unit of the material security group, quickly convened the work of the material security group. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set up a leading group for epidemic prevention and control in the ministry, which is headed by the party's party secretary and minister Miao Wei.

The main tasks we have carried out are as follows: First, mobilize the national industrial information system to organize production enterprises to go back to work and resume production. On January 23, Minister Miao Wei went to Tianjin to investigate the production guarantee situation of materials. On January 26, our Ministry sent five surveys Group, went to Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan to investigate and supervise; the second is to establish a national reserve material system for prevention and control, direct allocation of materials to key production enterprises; the third is to guide the e-commerce platform price control, flow control, and reasonable delivery; The fourth is to do everything possible to ensure the needs of Hubei prevention and control materials.

At the time of the Spring Festival holiday, the return of employees to the company, material transportation and other restrictions on the company's resumption of production, there is still a gap in the supply of preventive control materials, especially the contradiction between supply and demand of medical protective clothing. In the next step, we will step up efforts to urge enterprises to resume work and resume production, strengthen personnel to the on-site supervision of key production enterprises, use the central reserve to strengthen the temporary collection and storage of key materials, and use protective clothing for export companies that comply with relevant foreign standards for domestic and international expansion. Procurement addresses domestic needs.

Question: At present, the general public is particularly concerned about the availability of N95 masks. What are the good solutions?

Responsible comrades of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: On the one hand, we are doing everything possible to ensure production, on the other hand, we also call on all sectors of the society to correctly understand the scientific use of N95 masks. Academician Zhong Nanshan, the leader of the high-level expert group of the National Health and Medical Commission, also reminded in an interview with CCTV "News 1 + 1" that in fact, the protection of ordinary people in daily life does not necessarily require N95 masks, which are generally medical types. Protective masks can block most of the virus-borne droplets from entering the respiratory tract, and are sufficient in public places. The N95 mask is used when facing patients at close distances. For example, medical personnel are diagnosing and treating patients every day. They must wear this and change it for several hours. So you don't have to hoard N95 masks because of panic. After all, it is a difficult time.

Question: Some people report that there are currently difficulties in reaching the masks. For example, Wuhan has "closed the city". How can I transport the masks?

Responsible comrades of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: We are also coordinating in transportation. At present, Wuhan is the most difficult. For the transportation of some urgently needed epidemic prevention materials, railways, aviation, highways and other areas have given great support. The state and local governments have coordination mechanisms. In response to the shortage of medical goggles in Wuhan, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology urgently allocated 20,000 pairs of medical goggles and 5,000 medical isolation masks from Qingdao, and air-shipped them to Wuhan at 20:10 on January 27. This batch of medical protective supplies It will be distributed to local medical staff as soon as possible. In addition, the local government has also established special windows for customs clearance of donated materials for epidemic prevention, opened up green channels, and designated individuals to provide one-to-one customs clearance guidance to ensure the smooth arrival of epidemic prevention materials.

Committed to a difficult situation

In order to facilitate the timely procurement of epidemic prevention and control materials by various hospitals, the medical magic cube united enterprises to check the data of medical masks, protective clothing, face masks and medical cap manufacturers legally approved for listing by the National Drug Administration. At the same time, remind all purchasing units and individuals not to replace with non-medical masks, etc., any products that have not been approved by the drug regulatory system have no medical qualifications and effects.

National Medical Protective Materials Manufacturing Enterprise Information

Data Source: State Drug Administration, Enterprise Search

Statistics: Medicine Rubik's Cube

According to the statistics of the official website of the State Drug Administration, there are 384 companies producing medical protective materials (masks, medical caps, masks, protective clothing) nationwide.

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