THE city government of Manila has distributed some 470,000 face masks to its residents and frontliners as part of its effort to distribute a million washable face masks as a defense strategy against COVID-19.
Manila Public Employment Service Office chief Fernan Bermejo said 474,140 washable masks have been given away since the program was launched two months ago.
Bermejo said 26,223 masks were delivered Tuesday to his office and are now ready for distribution.
The Manila City government has tapped more than 50 unemployed seamstresses and tailors and 10 master cutters, some of them elderly and disabled, to make one million washable face masks for its Face Mask Livelihood Sewing program.
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said more than 680,000 people in 897 barangays of the city would receive one face mask each under the program.
The sewers who lost their jobs due to the effect of the pandemic earn up to P2,000 a day, depending on the number of masks are able to produce.
Moreno said that through the program, the city government has been able to provide livelihood to unemployed sewers while at the same time providing face masks to residents and frontliners.
