The government has brought sixty new surgical mask-making machines online. The new machines will help alleviate a shortage of surgical masks brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak.
President Tsai Ing-wen visited the production site housing the machines on Thursday. She later took to Facebook to thank the economics ministry and a team of Taiwanese machine tool experts for their work towards getting the machines up and running.
The economics ministry decided to purchase the machines at a cost of NT$180 million (US$6 million) after it became clear that Taiwan’s stock of masks would run low. Under normal circumstances, the process of building and delivering so many machines would have taken around half a year. However, a team of experts managed to get the job done in 25 days.
In her Facebook post, the president expressed pride in this project’s success. She said that putting aside competition and coming together in the face of crisis is the Taiwanese way. She also said that with its response to COVID-19, Taiwan has shown the world its power and capability.