During a visit to "SoftTech", an industrial unit specializing in technical textiles and involved in the production of these masks, the Minister stressed that these high-quality masks will be available at the markets to meet the national demand.

This factory, which was involved in the production of non-woven bags as part of the fight against plastic bags, started producing 600,000 masks per day and gradually increasing it to reach the current 2 million units and should reach, on Tuesday, a daily capacity of 3 million masks, he noted. 

These masks, produced under optimum hygienic conditions, are now stacked in packs of 10 units to prevent contamination of citizens with the new Coronavirus, explained the minister, adding that they will no longer be sold in packs of 50 and 100 units.

The face mask batches are reserved for Moroccan citizens and will not be exported, he reassured, adding that the authorities will crack down on all those who produce and sell non-compliant masks.

To establish the Moroccan standard governing protective masks using fabrics, "we have identified two international standards that deal respectively with masks for medical use and those for protection against particles," said director of the Moroccan Institute for Standardization (IMANOR) Abderrahim Taïbi.

Since this mask aims to protect in both directions, the one wearing it and his surrounding, "we have identified the requirements that could serve us for this purpose", he said, adding that they concern hygienic conditions, dimensional characteristics and the safety of the materials used to avoid the risk of allergy.