Already receiving donations of millions of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, Greece has asked seamstresses to make more, using fabric and rubber bands sent to 346 of them in 37 prefectures around the country, hoping it will produce 40,000.
It is being done through an initiative financed and launched online by artist Marios Eleftheriadis and tailor Konstantinos Tektonidis, said Kathimerini, the effort coming three weeks after the country was put on lockdown by the New Democracy government to help prevent the spread of the virus.
The masks would be given to the Hellenic Red Cross for distribution where needed although doctors, nurses and health care workers at state hospitals have protested shortages in gear and essential equipment.
Most of the material has been donated by wholesalers and others, while the rest was purchased. The masks are 100 percent cotton, washable and reusable.
“The response has been great,” Eleftheriadis told Kathimerini, adding that the seamstresses have fully embraced the initiative although it wasn’t said if they would be paid for their work or were volunteering their time.
The masks cannot replace the special ones used by medical and nursing staff, but they can meet the needs behind the front line, it said, as doctors and hospital staff require masks that filter out at least 95 percent of air contaminants.
The seamstresses had been asked to deliver the masks by April 10, but it was extended because of delays in the postal service, the paper said.
The Onassis Foundation donated 13.5 million surgical masks and NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo donated 10,000 to his adopted country while volunteers in northern Greece were producing 3D-printed plastic masks and China had already sent 1.7 million.
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