Balearic government to purchase protection equipment locally

Minister for productive sectors, Juan Pedro Yllanes. | Lliteres (Efe)

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma27/04/2020 19:22

The Balearic government will allocate up to nine million euros a month to purchase items of personal protection for the health service from local manufacturers. The vice-president and minister for productive sectors, Juan Pedro Yllanes, said on Monday that "we are calling on industry on the islands to help us satisfy, as far as possible, the need for material in the fight against coronavirus".

The health ministry has posted details on its website of what is needed - masks, gloves, aprons, sanitisers and so on - and of how companies can apply. The quantities are great, e.g. 2.6 million surgical masks per month. "Emergency" contracts for supply will be for a maximum of two years.

Among information that companies will need to give is whether they have been producing the necessary items over the past three years or the time it would take for them to be ready to start manufacturing them.

Health minister Patricia Gómez stressed that as well as supplying the health service, the aim is to create employment, to ensure that investment stays in the Balearics and to make the islands less dependent on the external market.

Regarding the possibility that diagnostic tests could also be manufactured locally, Gómez explained that the health ministry is making available funding of 300,000 euros for thirty projects to research this.