Omani company to manufacture surgical, N95 masks

Energy Monday 27/July/2020 15:40 PM
By: Times News Service
Omani company to manufacture surgical, N95 masks

Muscat: To help patients with COVID-19 who are currently being treated in hospitals and under home quarantine, a local company will soon begin manufacturing surgical and N95 masks in the country.
Al Farsi National Enterprises, which will be making these masks, hopes to help meet the national demand for protective gear during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as export it overseas to countries that require such equipment.
Issam Al Farsi, chairman of Al Farsi National Enterprises commented, “We are an Omani company supplying infection prevention and control supplies for hospitals for over 10 years. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we found it impossible to procure personnel protective equipment (PPE) for our customers.
“Many had to get by with rationing and reusing these lifesaving supplies and had to compromise on the quality of the product due to unavailability,” he added. “We promised ourselves that we will never be put in this position again, so we started building our own manufacturing facility to make surgical masks and healthcare respirators.”
These masks will be sold under the brand name ‘Trusta’, and in this context, Al Farsi said: “The name ‘Trusta’ was chosen to reflect confidence in the quality of the Omani product. We are striving to achieve the government’s directions of localisation of industry and products.”
The company which is part of a premier healthcare services group, stated it was using its product know-how and customer understanding to create high quality products that protect people, are comfortable to use, and represent a brand they will be proud to wear.
“Saju George, managing director of Al Farsi, said in context to the efforts made towards manufacturing these masks: “Within weeks, we managed to successfully mobilise the machinery and raw materials, re-modelled part of our logistics facility and built our factory.
“The entire team worked night and day to transform our company from a distributor to a manufacturer,” he added. “This project also aims to transform Oman from an importer to an exporter of surgical masks and N95 respirators. We hope to achieve this goal by end of this year.”
He continued, “We would like to thank the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and other government entities for their exceptional support and encouragement during this time in providing approvals and valuable advice on the project.”