Foreign Property News | Posted by Hnin Ei Khin
A swab factory manufacturing coronavirus tests dumped its entire production line after Donald Trump visited without a mask and held one up to his nose.
Puritan Medical Products in Guilford, Maine, was forced to trash the Covid-19 nasal probes it had been manufacturing after the president visited its production line Friday.
Trump – who has flouted government guidance to wear a mask in public – strolled around the facility in his suit, did not wear PPE, and declared ‘I shouldn’t tell you this, but I use it every other day,’ as he held a swab close to his nose.
Purtian have not said how many swabs it has been forced to trash as a result of the potential contamination, although a spokesman told USA Today it ran a ‘limited’ production line on Saturday.
It is unclear whether bosses there took the decision knowing that the president would almost certainly not wear a mask, as he has refused to do on previous public appearances since the coronavirus outbreak began.
The swabs were dumped as a majority of nearby nursing homes reported having inadequate coronavirus testing equipment – including swabs identical to those thrown out without ever being used.
Last month, the Portland Press Herald reported that 17 out of 28 nursing homes surveyed had fewer than 10 of the swabs needed to perform coronavirus tests.
The other nine had no swabs at all. Puritan is one of the world’s leading coronavirus testing equipment manufacturers, and is set to open an expanded factory next month that will enable it to manufacture 45 million swabs a month.
Hailing the facility during his visit, President Trump said: ‘Made in the USA. I’ve been saying it for a long time.’
Ref: Metro
