Masayoshi Son, chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp, disclosed that he secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan starting next month after striking an agreement with Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD Co Ltd, which has also begun to produce its own masks.
Son said SoftBank will give out two separate styles of mask, initially for health care workers, designed to tackle shortages as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, and in collaboration with the Japanese government's "mask team," Son bared on Twitter.
The SoftBank Group said it will supply 200 million standard surgical masks and 100 million advanced N95 respirators every month under a contract with BYD. BYD has begun mass-production of masks in February in the midst of the spread of the latest coronavirus. SoftBank Group aims to purchase and supply the Chinese-produced masks without taking a fee.
Softbank will be partnering with the government to provide the medical community with masks, "and to as many people as possible," Son, who has a long history of investing in Chinese companies, said. He tweeted last month that he would donate coronavirus test kits to 1 million people, but later he said he would rather donate 1 million masks.
Addressing supply constraints is a priority for the Japanese government, which will start distributing two washable face masks next week to households - a move that has been widely frowned upon as insufficient on social media.
The government said it is also targeting local production of 700 million disposable masks. BYD's output capability has hit 15 million masks per day, a spokeswoman for the company stated.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has soared in Tokyo and other regions, bringing Japan's total to 6,854. More than 600 new cases were registered nationwide as of Saturday.
The number includes 14 people returning from China on chartered flights, and 127 people who are health or quarantine officials, or who were found to have contracted the virus during routine checks at airports upon arrival.
The global health scare has prompted Son's Twitter comeback, where he argued that officials rather than scientists are at the forefront of the country's response against the crisis, and surveyed users about their perception of the government's efforts - raising pressure to ramp up social distancing measures.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has now killed more than 20,071 lives in the United States, which also leads the world in terms of the number of confirmed infections with 519,454, based on reports by the John Hopkins University.
