The sale of locally-produced disposable, hygienic and surgical masks as a protection measure against COVID-19 and other respiratory disorders, is scheduled to begin in Cuba by the end of this June.
The masks, the first to be made on the island, are produced by the Unimoda Textile Confections Company, located in Matanzas and belonging to the Gardis Business Group.
Each piece has three layers, two of them made of non-woven fabrics (spunbond) and an intermediate filter (meltblown) that “will guarantee safety and comfort, in addition to adding other added values such as sterilization and packaging,” according to the Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) news agency.
Maribel Rodríguez, general director of Unimoda, specified that the distribution of Cuban masks will begin with health workers, prioritized for their role in confronting the pandemic, while other sectors with high risk of contagion will also benefit, such as tourism, transportation and commerce, before starting sales to the population.
The directive added that the commercialization of these means of protection in the network of stores will include establishments in freely convertible currency and in others in Cuban pesos (CUP) “at very affordable prices.”
Rodríguez explained that the mini-industry in charge of the production of masks is located in the University of Matanzas and is currently in the testing and start-up phase. In it, she said, “the efficiency of the production process is being evaluated and the training of work personnel is also being perfected, made up mostly of young people from the house of higher studies itself.”
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The technology already installed in the city of Matanzas “will make it possible to make, sterilize and package around a hundred units per minute in two lines of work, which could translate into some 84,000 masks for each eight-hour shift,” said the director of Unimoda, cited by ACN.
The production of disposable masks in Cuba “makes it possible to substitute imports” and “represents a considerable saving compared to the costs of buying abroad,” said the source, according to which those bought abroad cost around 46 cents of a dollar while making them on the island costs about 15 cents of a dollar.
Unimoda has experience in the production of means of sanitary protection and during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has already produced face masks, overcoats, masks, multipurpose clothes and sheets for isolation centers of suspected and contacts of confirmed cases with the contagious disease.
