The Covid-19 outbreak is bringing people together in ways that we might never have imagined.
With countries helping one another, donation drives for the needy and prisoners making face masks, it really goes to show that humanity still exists in this world.
Even gaming PC manufacturer Razer wants to do something to contribute to stopping the spread of the deadly virus.
Reader Bao: Are they giving out free mouses?
No. They’re doing something even better.
Razer Aims To Donate 1M Face Masks
CEO of Razer, Min-Liang Tan, recently announced on Facebook and Twitter that his company would be making and donating surgical masks to play their part in fighting the virus.
“Over the past few days, our designers and engineers have been working 24-hour shifts to convert some of our existing manufacturing lines to produce surgical masks so that we can donate them to countries around the world,” he wrote.
“We intend to donate up to 1M masks to the health authorities of different countries globally. For starters, we’ve been in touch with the authorities in Singapore (where Razer SEA HQ is based) to donate some of the initial shipments to assist their fight against COVID-19.”
Since the company focuses on making gaming hardware and accessories, producing face masks is obviously not something that falls under their usual line of work.
It’s certainly heartwarming to know that they are choosing to do this to help the rest of the world.
Plus, 24-hour shifts? That’s some serious dedication right there.
Lots Of Support From The Public
Of course, this announcement was well-received by many and the company received loads of support and praise for their generous donations.
Here are some of the comments from Mr Tan’s Facebook post:
The 42-year-old Singaporean entrepreneur founded the company along with Robert Krakoff in 1998.
He also encouraged everyone else to play their part as well.
“All of us have a part to play and we should be doing whatever we can with the situation getting more serious. Please keep yourself and your family safe – and do lets support each other in these trying times. The team at Razer is stepping up to do what we can,” wrote Mr Tan.
He also said that making these 1 million masks is only the first step of many that Razer would be willing to take.
“We are committed to contributing our extra time, resources, effort and talent toward the fight against COVID-19,” he added.
Reader Bao: Free mouses?
Let’s not rule out anything.
But why masks?
The World Needs 89M Masks Per Month
Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that an estimated 89 million medical masks are required for the COVID-19 response each month.
In order to meet the global demand for masks, industries and governments will have to increase their manufacturing of masks by 40 per cent.
“Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We can’t stop COVID-19 without protecting health workers first,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Hopefully, more large companies will start to offer their donations and services after seeing this example from Razer, as well as others who have already done so like Sharp and Foxconn.
