Three Singapore companies Frasers Property Retail, JustCo, and PBA Group have each committed USD 50,000 to purchase surgical masks that gaming peripheral company Razer is producing.
The masks will be donated to health authorities in Singapore and other countries in Southeast Asia, to support frontline healthcare workers in the fight against COVID-19.
Two weeks ago, Razer CEO Min-Ling Tan first shared on Facebook that the company was converting some of its manufacturing lines to produce surgical masks, aiming to donate “up to 1 million” of them.
It’s hard to imagine how the firm will manoeuvre this switch so quickly, but Tan dropped an update on April 1 that they are already working towards building a fully automated mask manufacturing line in Singapore, which may be ready “within 30 days”.
Two million masks per month
With this facility, Razer will target to produce “a couple of million” masks each month, and can further expand capacity if needed.
While it’s currently undecided how the masks will be priced, Tan made an open call for any Singaporeans and Singapore companies who were interested to make the first purchase of USD 50,000.
The supportive responses from Frasers Property, JustCo, and PBA came in within just five hours of his announcement.
“Huge thanks to these three partners who have stepped up. Looking forward to hearing from many more,” said Tan.