Image copyright Reuters Image caption Japan, where face masks were already popular, has been struggling with shortagesJapanese electronics giant Sharp is to use a TV factory to make surgical masks amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Sharp's high-end clean rooms in Japan will turn out 150,000 masks a day within weeks, Japanese media report, as domestic supplies have been exhausted.
But the type of surgical masks being made are not proven to protect against infection.
The panic-buying of masks is hitting global supply - prompting the US surgeon general to appeal to people to stop buying them.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeted.