ReMask Consortium Tackles Protective Mask Shortage

(EMPA, August 23, 2020)

In order to meet Switzerland's need for protective equipment during the Corona crisis, as well as to prepare for future pandemics, researchers from Empa, ETH Zurich, EPFL and the Spiez Laboratory, together with a large number of partners from the health care sector and industry, recently launched the "ReMask" project. The aim is to develop technologies to reuse existing masks, as well as to promote the domestic production of efficient protective equipment and alternative masks with new properties to trap and kill viruses. The knowledge gained will subsequently be used to support the "National COVID-19 Science Task Force" (SN-STF), which provides independent scientific expertise from academic and research circles to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and other federal agencies that are engaged in containing and mitigating the spread of SARS-CoV-2.