MANILA Mayor Isko Moreno yesterday said the city government has already distributed more than
866,000 washable face masks to residents and frontliners since June as part of its one million face mask program.
Moreno said that as of Saturday, September 19, the city Public Employment and Service Office (PESO), which is in charge of the program, was already able to distribute 866,449 washable face masks.
The program, which also doubles as a livelihood initiative for Manila’s displaced workers, targets the production and distribution of one million face masks to residents and frontline workers in the effort to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The city government has hired 50 unemployed seamstresses and tailors and 10 master cutters, some of them elderly and disabled, under the program.
Moreno said more than 680,000 residents from 897 barangays will be given one washable face mask each.
As of September 18, Manila has recorded 11,272 COVID cases, of which 10,013 have already recovered, leaving only 821 active cases. Recorded fatalities tally at 438. — Ashzel Hachero
