Covid-19 : Companies convert production to save lives
Several Moroccan companies have converted their production chains to make personal protective gears (facemasks/shields, gloves…) and even ventilators to help combat the shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sensing the urgent needs, some companies worked night shifts to scale up the country’s daily production of face-masks to over 3.3 million, while other firms such as SERMP, a study and precision mechanical engineering company, has turned its aeronautical factory to the manufacturing of ICU breathing machines which can be life-saving for some critically-ill covid-19 patients.
These ventilators, 100% Morocco made, offer emergency doctors 3000 hour operation autonomy, said Moroccan minister of Industry, Trade and Green and Digital Economy, Moulay Hafid Elalamy, during a visit to SERMP company.
In this aeronautical factory, an engineering ecosystem was quickly deployed to produce locally these breathing machines, life-saving for treating critically-ill patients, said the minister.
“We are already at the second version which allows, in addition to providing ventilation, to have sensors and to send oxygen in a more technical way”, he noted, commending the input of all stockholders that helped to produce the first batch of 500 ventilators.
Director of the SERMP, Badre Jaafar, on his part said that these respirators are manufactured in accordance with aeronautical standards of high standards.
The product, he said, followed the manufacturing process for parts that go on Airbus and Boeing aircraft engines.
“The design of this respirator is entirely Moroccan, from the manufacturing of the reduction motor, to electronic cards, to other mechanical parts, to assembly,” said Badre Jaafar.
Covid-19 patients need a ventilator when their lungs can no longer deliver enough oxygen to keep the body going. At this point, this machine is a critical tool for keeping them alive.
The Rabat’s International University (UIR) on its part launched initiatives to develop local solutions for medical personnel working on the frontline of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In this vein, the university manufactured protective face masks for nursing staff of hospitals in the Rabat region, mainly in the Mohammed V Military Hospital, the Rabat Children’s Hospital, and the Avicenne Hospital.
The university said it will also distribute the masks to the COVID-19 Specialized Hospital in Saidia, in Eastern Morocco.
The university plans to manufacture more durable Filtering Facial Piece (FFP) masks to replace disposable masks with a limited lifespan.
In Morocco, the novel coronavirus has so far killed 91 people, infected 1242, while 97 others recovered.
