As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, one risk to emergency service providers is a shortage of supplies like the face masks that keep them safe as they treat patients. The gaming hardware and accessory manufacturer Razer is planning to step in and do its part, by shifting some of its production capacity to make and donate up to one million surgical masks.
In a thread on Twitter (via Kotaku), CEO Min-Liang Tan said that designers and engineers at the company have been working long hours to convert their production lines to make the surgical masks. It’s starting with Singapore where Razer is headquartered, and regional offices will be reaching out to government and health authorities to plan how it will prioritize the distribution of the masks.
“All of us have a part to play and we should be doing whatever we can with the situation getting more serious,” Tan says. “This emergency conversion of some of our lines and donation of masks is the first step of many that will take. We are committed to contributing our extra time, resources, effort and talent toward the fight against COVID-19.”
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.
— Min-Liang Tan (@minliangtan) March 19, 2020
The rest of our Razer global/regional offices will also be reaching out to their respective governments/health authorities to see how we can prioritize our support and donations of surgical masks in the various countries and regions where we have a presence.
— Min-Liang Tan (@minliangtan) March 19, 2020
Hospitals have sounded the alarm in recent days that they’re already seeing shortages of some supplies like face masks as the outbreak expands. The Department of Defense is donating 5 million surgical masks, and 2,000 ventilators to hospitals, and Vice President Mike Pence has called on the construction industry to donate even more masks.
Coronavirus has already had a broad impact on the games industry, notably leading to the cancellation of E3 2020. The games retailer GameStop has been forced to shift policies and release dates to maintain social distancing practices amid the dual release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal. But it’s also instructing stores to remain open even if they defy state orders.