Making face masks to plug the gap
Residents and businesses help out
THE COVID-19 pandemic caught Spain and many other countries unaware, and very soon it became evident that there was a tremendous shortage of protective gear for medical staff and police forces.
The regional government has called on the textile industries of Alcoy to start making protective gowns and masks.
Over the past few days, many private citizens and associations have donated material, including the Chinese community handing over boxes of face masks and gloves to local police forces and hospitals.
Examples include the citizens’ platform for excellent healthcare (Sanidad Excelente, Plataforma Ciudadana), which is organising an initiative for people to make face masks at home for professionals at Torrevieja hospital.
People wanting to help can do so by telephoning 605 403 331 or emailing info@plataforma sanidadtorrevieja.es
They have to provide their name and address, so that the Protección Civil force can deliver the necessary materials and instructions to their home.
When volunteers have made a minimum of 25 masks, Protección Civil members will collect them and deliver them to the hospital.
Volunteers from all over the Mar Menor area and Pilar de la Horadada have also been making masks in their homes for the healthcare services.
An appeal was launched by town halls and volunteers have been using donated hospital sheets and fabric.
All they required was a sewing machine and basic skills, and they were provided with templates so the masks were the required size and shape.
According to the emergency services, thousands of masks were made over the weekend and volunteers are continuing to make more to guarantee the supply.
The masks are collected by the local police and Protección Civil, then taken to hospitals, where they are disinfected and distributed.
A cooperative of seamstresses in Rojales, Evimefamm has also been making face masks.
Using sheets of cotton they had in stock, they have made more than 1,000 for medical personnel, local police, civil protection and workers most exposed to the risk of contagion in the Vega Baja area.
In Villajoyosa, expat Helen Skeels donated a box of protective eyewear to the town’s health centre, who shared them with Marina Baixa hospital.
Her husband is a builder and had the goggles stored at home, so when she was told how desperate staff were for them, she didn’t think twice and handed then over.
In La Robella, a rural district of Villajoyosa, protective gowns are being made out of bin bags for Santa Marta retirement home. This started when Menti, a Spanish woman with a second home there, added her daughter Alejandra to the neighbourhood WhatsApp group.
Alejandra posted a pattern for making gowns out of binbags, explaining that the seams for the arms had to be on top and not underneath, and the bags could be joined by sewing or with a silicon gun.
Local resident Antonio Navarro used a vacuum packaging machine to seal the bags and soon local police picked up the first batch of 16 bin-bag gowns for the delighted staff of the Santa Marta home, who until then had no protective gear at all. Meanwhile, Alejandra’s sister Sara went on local radio and now gowns are being made all over the Marina Baixa for the hospital and other homes for the elderly.
Alejandra also discovered that heating tongs or an ordinary iron, used with oven paper, could also seal the plastic together, which made things a lot easier, and she also found a pattern to make protective headgear for nurses.
Another local association, Dones Rurales de La Vila has been putting their members sewing skills to good use by making face masks, and they have already handed a pile to Villajoyosa hospital.