Morocco seeks self-sufficiency in ventilator, protective gear

Several operators in the Moroccan industrial fabric are swiftly adapting to manufacture anti-coronavirus equipment including ventilators, an artificial breathing device in high demand.

A group of aeronautics enterprises as well as researchers and doctors and electronic engineers cooperated to produce a first prototype last month that will serve as a basis to improve a more sophisticated version of the Moroccan ventilator, designed to save lives by pumping oxygenated air to the lungs of coronavirus patients.

The Industry Ministry told Reuters that a delivery of 500 ventilators will be ready in a week to fill the gap in such vital devices for serious Covid-19 cases.

Research is also ongoing to produce more sophisticated ventilators that use intubation.

Speaking to Reuters, Badre Jaafar, leading one of the aeronautics manufacturing companies in Casablanca, said that the Moroccan breathing machines are produced according to rigorous aeronautics standards.

Morocco has also increased its mask production capacity to hit 5 million in few days, enough to supply the domestic market with export prospects, the industry minister Moulay Hafid El Alamy told the media.

Other Moroccan companies are producing sanitizers, gloves and protective gear for medical staff to help Morocco secure self-sufficiency in such highly demanded equipment worldwide.

Total coronavirus cases rose in Morocco to 1527, including 110 deaths and 141 recoveries.