Every effort is now being made in the Netherlands to address the impending shortage of medically approved mouth caps for healthcare. Moreover, in many other, including European, countries, it is made compulsory for everyone to wear mouth caps. Production is therefore being scaled up.
For instance, Auping has been commissioned by the Ministry of Health, together with healthcare design firm Panton, to produce four million high-quality mouth caps. Incidentally, these are specifically intended for people in care.
The bed manufacturer has teamed up with Panton to design a mouth-nose mask to protect healthcare professionals who come into contact with corona patients. The design has been tested by an accredited testing institute and obtained the FFP2 test certificate. In the coming weeks (Auping reports this in a press release dated Wednesday 8 April), "production at Auping will be started as soon as possible, so that the first series can be delivered to the National Resource Consortium (LCH) before the end of this month.
No commercial interests
Panton approached Auping after increasing reports surfaced of an imminent shortage of necessary FFP2 masks for corona-critical treatments in intensive care. Previously, millions of masks from China were declared unusable by medical testing authorities. Auping claims that none of the parties have commercial interests in the development of the specific Covid-19 mask.
"Panton's designers have been known for years for their creativity and expertise in developing medical products," the press release continues. "Family company Auping is known for their social entrepreneurship and quality beds and mattresses. As early as 1888, Johannes Auping started producing well-ventilated coil bases for hospital beds. Since then, Auping has spent more than 130 years working on the best ways to rest."
Air filter manufacturer is helping out
Alkmaar-based air filter manufacturer AFPRO filter has also been commissioned to make FFP2 mouth masks, for now intended only for healthcare. That company is initially targeting 1 million mouth masks per week. AFPRO, whose operations include three factories in China, was already closely involved in supplying and installing air filters in two emergency hospitals in Wuhan province during the virus outbreak. When the virus reached Europe, demand for advanced air filters grew here too. Thus, AFPRO was already installing dedicated air filter systems at emergency hospitals abroad. When the call for more protective equipment became more urgent, AFPRO's management decided to scale up the production of FFP2 mouth masks in the Netherlands, so that the masks meet Dutch standards and can still be delivered quickly. Joost Verlaan, vice-president of AFPRO Filters: "You hear everywhere that we can only overcome this virus if we do it together. That means, do what you can. For everyone else, it means: stay home and keep your distance. For us, it also means: produce and deliver! We are happy to support the government and emergency medical services with this."
Source: Auping.nl, afprofilters.nl, PT Industrieel Management
