(Yicai Global) April 9 – The US Food and Drug Administration has provided emergency use authorization for masks made by four Chinese companies as Covid-19 continues to spread across the country.

The FDA authorized masks made by BYD Precision, Fujian Kangchen Commodities, Weini Technology Development and Taiwan-based BeiBeiSafety, Beijing Business Today reported yesterday.

Masks made outside the United States, which has logged over 430,000 Covid-19 cases to date, cannot enter the local market without consent from the FDA. Those made in China, the world’s biggest mask-making nation, are made in line with different standards than in the US and were previously banned from the market. Chinese masks follow the KN standard, while those in the US use N. In Europe, masks follow FFP and those from Korea use KF standards.

“[Kangchen Commodities] has been exporting tens of thousands of masks every day,” a sales executive at the firm told BBT. “The company mostly exports disposable protective KN95 masks but not medical masks, and may start exporting more to the US market.”

China has been ramping up its anti-pandemic exports since Covid-19 starting spreading more quickly overseas. It sent CNY10.2 billion (USD1.4 billion) worth of such materials overseas between March 1 and April 4, according to Chinese customs data. As of April 4, 54 countries and regions and three international organizations had signed commercial procurement contracts for medical supplies from Chinese firms.

Editor: James Boynton