ViriMASK™ – The Israeli mask that protects medical staff was developed by Haifa resident Prof. Noam Gavriely.
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The second wave of COVID-19 in Israel, with the increasing rate of patients every day and many medical teams in isolation, has brought a new Israeli development: a unique face mask that provides full respiratory protection to all teams at the forefront of the Corona virus. The mask, ViriMASK™, was developed by a Haifa resident Prof. Noam Gavriely, who was the director of the Respiratory Physiology Unit at the Technion’s Faculty of Medicine, Larry Murdoch, a specialist in respiratory function systems, and Leonardo Schwartz, operations manager for plastic injection products.
For the past few months, they have worked day and night in a laboratory in Tirat Carmel to develop the ViriMASK™, which allows for prolonged use, with one filter replacement every 60 hours of operation, which will give teams the opportunity for continuous work and complete protection from virus infection.
In recent days, company representatives have conducted tests in internal and external laboratories and found that ViriMASK™ provides more than 99% protection against the corona virus.
Compared to the mask that medical teams (N95) currently use, which transmits up to 5% of the particles, ViriMASK™ transfers less than 1%. In addition, ViriMASK™ also blocks floating aerosols from reaching the conjunctivae, unlike the N95 which provides protection for the nose and mouth only.
In terms of respiratory load – the resistance to airflow of the N95 mask is 3 times greater than that of the ViriMASK™, which causes side effects such as headaches, shortness of breath and nausea. Users of the ViriMASK™ mask do not suffer from these symptoms.
The company’s current production capacity can reach about 10,000 masks per week, depending on the growing demand. The company began exporting its products about a month ago to countries in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Africa and India.
Prof. Noam Gavriely from Haifa, inventor of the ViriMASK™ mask: “The existing protection today is insufficient for the teams working at the forefront of the struggle in Corona, so in recent months we have developed a new mask that gives them the ability to work effectively, safely and comfortably”.