Homemade masks given to front-line workers
(CNS): An army of volunteers has been stitching away over the last couple of weeks making protective fabric masks with filter pockets for those whose jobs are bringing them into direct contact with the public every day during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative, which is being organised through the Cayman Islands Red Cross (CIRC), has produced the first batch of 350 locally-produced homemade masks, which were handed over on Friday, with another 3,650 to come in the next few weeks for front-line workers, including police and prison officers.
Disposable protective masks are in short supply all over the world but the need for everyone to begin wearing masks is increasingly stressed as another element in the battle to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee had therefore made an appeal for a homemade mask production to supplement current and ordered supplies of medical grade masks and the Red Cross was asked to do this and the project began just before Easter.
“The use of masks is encouraged during public settings where social distancing may be difficult to maintain,” said Dr Lee. “However, masks are only a complementary measure and should not be a replacement for the core protective measures that are recommended to reduce community transmission of COVID-19, including physical distancing, staying home, respiratory etiquette, meticulous hand hygiene and avoiding touching the face, nose, eyes and mouth,” he added.
Health Minister Dwayne Seymour has been increasingly encouraging everyone to wear masks whenever they are in public but has fallen short of mandating them due to the shortages.
“I am very grateful that the Cayman Islands Red Cross took up the appeal so quickly and is making good headway for this much-needed resource,” the minister stated in a release. “It has an impressive track record of mobilising volunteers in times of national need,” he added as he thanked the volunteers.
CIRC said that as the local branch of the international disaster response organisation, with years of experience in hurricane preparedness implementation, it is strategically able to rapidly mobilise volunteers.
“We know that emergencies help to solidify a community’s identity,” said CIRC Director Jondo Obi. “Given the nature of the current health crisis, it has the potential to make people feel helpless given that the best way to assist is really by staying put. However, what this mask-making project has hopefully shown us all is that there are many ways in which people can still be involved and truly make a difference”
The director said there was always a need for volunteers who have skills, time and a strong sense of commitment to the community. In this instance, just hours after posting the, which was made in four different languages on the CIRC Facebook page, they received hundreds of calls from volunteers who were willing to help.
The Cayman Islands Government then purchased the material to make these homemade masks, and the kits were made by CIRC and distributed to more than 100 volunteers earlier this month. All items were professionally cleaned before they were sent to the volunteer mask makers, who were given a pattern and instructions from Selma Silva of the Pink Ladies on how to make them.
These masks are reusable and should be washed on a high temperature setting by the wearers after each shift. Users are instructed to wash their hands with soap and water or alcohol-based hand-sanitizer before putting them on or taking them off.
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Category: Community, Health, Local News, Medical Health
Maybe a small fee could allow the makers of the mask to afford putting them in washing machine and then putting them in a plastic bag. Each person making masks are going to take about 8 hours to create 20 masks a day and stop for lunch. Say $5 a mask $2-3 profit? Anybody making masks are probably not working so they have spare time. But its still work.
Thank you for all the volunteers labouring away for our safety!!
N95’s, or just for show? Please guys, I know something is better than nothing, but shouldn’t front line personnel have the real thing? Can we not do more to protect them?
There’s a worldwide shortage of N95 masks so these will serve better than being bare faced.
Nothing to see here, move along….
I would like to make my own, please let me have the pattern.
I have seen many tutorials on youtube. Some don’t even require sewing. Every little bit helps. thank you!
Congratulations to the Red Cross and all their volunteers, we all truly appreciate your efforts.
Well done, thank you!
Seems like all govt workers have masks, but when are the public going to get them. Our MLA’s are supposed to distribute them but when?. By the time we get them the Health Minister will have run out of languages to translate.
Masks are a waste of time and make it more likely they will contract the virus. They can keep them
At the very least, wearing a mask properly and exercising social distancing tells others that you are being responsible. It doesn’t make you any less dangerous, but it encourages others to be responsible also.
I’ll stick with the advice of the World Health Organization thanks, you can follow Jon Jon instead if you want
If you get sick, you are statistically likely to infect 3-4 other people, who, in turn, are likely to infect 3-4 more and so on and so on. Eventually down the line, if you get infected, your actions will cause the death of some person. That is just the bare truth of it. Be responsible.
I can guarantee you, if you are in Fosters and some maskless asshat is barking three feet from you, you’ll wish like hell you were wearing one. It’s a no-brainer. When you wear a mask, you are protecting everyone around you. You don’t KNOW if you’ve been exposed to Covid-19 as many people are asymptomatic.
Do the right thing and be safe. Don’t get it, don’t spread it.
You might wish it. But then you remember that wearing one of these will do nothing for you. (As has been said repeatedly, puts people at higher risk due to relaxed self-sanitation practices.) Then you’ll wish the cougher was wearing it because that’s when it has at least some chance of reducing infection rates.
I’d rather get my mask at the entrance to the supermarket than having to detour to an MLA’s house where the masks may have been contaminated by any number of people that have visited before me. Why not have a supervised box at the entrance to the shops so people can take one after they’ve been sprayed with the mandatory sanitizer? Having us go to someone’s home and then transport the mask before needing to use it negates the purpose and is a waste of resources, especially if they are single use masks.