Residents line up to buy face coverings on Feb 12 in Tsim Sha Tsui amid a shortage of supplies in the city. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong government on Friday said it has approved subsidy for six more mask production lines under the Local Mask Production Subsidy Scheme.

The combined monthly output of the six production lines will be sufficient to provide an average of 10 million masks to the government and 20,000 others to the local market. 

So far, eight production lines are subsidized under the scheme

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So far, eight production lines are subsidized under the scheme.

The two production lines that were earlier approved under the scheme can produce about 2.8 million masks for the government every month and 250,000 for the local market.

The scheme is designed to provide subsidies to a maximum of 20 local production lines.

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The Hong Kong Productivity Council, which oversees the scheme, has received a total of 103 applications. As the number of applications has far exceeded the quota, the council said it would no longer accept new applications from Friday.

The scheme, under the HK$30-billion Anti-epidemic Fund, aims to facilitate local production of masks to meet local demand amid short supply.