3M to double production of respirator masks amid coronavirus outbreak

(Reuters) – U.S. industrial giant 3M Co said on Friday it is doubling the global production of its N95 respirators masks to over 1.1 billion a year to meet the soaring demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.

3M currently makes more than 400 million of such respirator masks a year in the United States and plans http://pdf.reuters.com/htmlnews/htmlnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20200320:nBw8sgv90a to expand its global capacity by over 30% in the next one year.

N95 respirator masks are designed to filter 95% of airborne particles and is a more robust respiratory protective gear.

(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)