GEORGE TOWN, April 2 — The Penang state government will be allocating RM60,000 to fund homemade face shields, created by a local engineer for healthcare workers.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said a Penang engineer, Louis Ooi, and her team have created face shields that are easy to make for healthcare workers in hospitals to use.

"Medical experts in Penang Hospital have acknowledged the face shields as being safer, more comfortable to wear, cheaper and easier to be made,” he said.

He said the allocated sum will fund the costs of producing 2,000 face shields per day for a month, bringing the total face shields to about 60,000 pieces.

He said this will meet the needs of all government hospitals and clinics in Penang.

The Penang state government has also ordered six million face masks and the first batch of 200,000 face masks had arrived this week.

Chow said the face masks were distributed to all state assemblymen’s offices, district offices and federal agencies that are frontliners.

"Each assemblyman will distribute the face masks to their constituents who need it from time to time as and when the stock arrives,” he said.

He said the second batch of face masks is expected to arrive next week and it will be distributed fairly with priority given to the frontliners.

He thanked the China Consulate in Penang, XSD International Paper and the government of Quangang District, Fujian Province in China for contributing face masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) to Penang government hospitals.

The China Consulate of Penang, represented by the Consul General of China in Penang Lu Shiwei, presented 15,000 medical surgical face masks to the Penang Hospital while XSD International Paper, a Chinese company operating in Kedah, donated 50,000 face masks to the Penang state government.

The Fujian Province government contributed 6,400 masks, 100 sets of personal protective clothing and 100 sets of shoe covers.

The Penang state government has also set up a Penang Covid-19 Fund which will be used to help those impacted by the movement control order (MCO and Covid-19 pandemic.

Donations for the fund can be made to Maybank account number 557054620930 or go to www.PenangLawanCovid19.com for details.