TEHRAN – About 450 knowledge-based companies are active in the country for manufacturing protective equipment and treatment products to fight the coronavirus, Mehdi Kashmiri, director for technology and planning at the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, said.

“Production of more than one million face masks per day, production of more than 1.5 liters of disinfectants per day, diagnostic kits, non-contact thermometers, protective clothing, ventilator are among the produces manufactured by these companies,” he stated.
He added that 150 companies are active in the field of hospital equipment production.  

Besides, manufacturers have multiplied their production capacity and researchers have achieved the technology to produce three kinds of COVID-19 diagnostic kits that hit the market for the past two weeks.

Two types of diagnostic kits are now mass-produced by knowledge-based companies, first one is the RT-PCR tests, 8 million of which are being produced per month; while the other is serology-based tests that a total of 400,000 are being manufactured monthly and is expected to reach up to 2 million.

At present, 40 advanced ventilators are manufactured daily in the medical equipment sector.

Iranian-made innovative products in the field of diagnosis, screening, and fighting coronavirus were also unveiled to combat the disease, namely, ozone generator, nano face shields, disinfection gate, and molecular COVID-19 diagnostic kits.

Over the past 24 hours, 2,691 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the country, of which 1,625 were hospitalized, the total number of patients in the country reached 248,379, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on Wednesday.

The number of daily COVID-19 mortalities in the country reported 153 on Wednesday and the total number of deaths reached 12,084.

Officials warn of an alarming situation in the days ahead.

Currently, 3,309 patients with coronavirus are in critical condition.

So far, 209,463 patients have recovered or been discharged from hospitals.

FB/MG