Turkey’s Defense Ministry has unveiled a prototype of a locally made respirator, named “Sahra” (desert in Turkish).
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on April 17 examined the prototype manufactured by the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Company (MKEK), a Turkish government-owned corporation that supplies the Turkish army with military products.
“So we have also produced Sahra mechanical breathing device, with completely indigenous design and production. This is a prototype. Our friends will improve them in the coming days. There is an approval process by the relevant departments and other units in the Health Ministry. By speeding this up as much as possible, we will realize its mass production,” Akar said.
Akar said Sahra is cheaper than its alternatives in the world, and that the ministry eyes to produce 500 ventilators every week.
“We will continue our works in coordination with the Health Ministry to meet the needs of the [Turkish] Armed Forces on the one hand and our dear nation on the other,” he said.
Ventilators are mechanical breathing devices that can blow air and oxygen into the lungs. They are crucial for the care of people with lung failure, which can be one of the complications suffered by patients with severe COVID-19, the disease coronavirus causes.
So far, the virus has claimed 1,769 lives in Turkey, with registered cases amounting to 78,546.