The novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 which started in Wuhan, a city in the province of Hubei in China, has overtaken our lives. It has unexpected effects on the way we face our lives in recent days. COVID-19 has put a full stop in most of our activities, making the government implement measures to stop its spread like imposing a lockdown or an enhanced community quarantine.
How can an individual stop the spread of the virus or even slow it down? The governments from the Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have been encouraging citizens to wear a mask, but is it effective? While there is still no solid evidence, recent data suggest it’s making a difference when compared to the number of cases from the western world, where masks are not encouraged.
With the rise of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines comes the scarcity in masks. Medical front liners need it the most in the battle against an unseen enemy. This unprecedented situation suggests creating our own mask at home.
Mask4EveryJuan is a project by a lumad Kagay-anon Michael Abonitalla. He launched this website encouraging Filipinos to protect themselves and others with the use of homemade masks. The initiative also encourages individuals to donate masks to medical staff. We encourage you to donate to your local hospital.
The website also showed the different ways on how you can create your own mask. Here are two ways to do it:
The easy way using a paper towel and rubber bands
A more technical approach on creating your mask
Protect yourself, protect others. Help fight this pandemic. For further information on maintaining and cleaning your homemade masks, go to masks4everyjuan.com.
Show us your mask, use the hashtag #Mask4EveryJuan on your favourite social media platforms.
In case you don’t want to go out or isolating, here’s a list of CDO free delivery services and businesses operating amidst the Coronavirus pandemic or if you want to lend a hand, help Coronavirus CDO frontline workers here.