The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has been commissioned to mass-produce up to 50 million reusable cloth face masks within the next four months to help protect the public against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
A Cabinet cluster gave TESDA the job of churning out the washable face masks that will be distributed to the public for free through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Department of Health (DOH), according to Aniceto Bertiz III, TESDA deputy director general for partnerships and linkages.
The mask is meant to trap droplets that are released when the wearer talks, coughs or sneezes.
“We’ve been directed to produce the 20-50 million face masks based on required quality standards of the DOST (Department of Science and Technology) and the DOH at a cost of no more than P15 each,” Bertiz said.
“TESDA on its own has been producing thousands of face masks through a home-based livelihood support program for displaced workers, long before we received the new directive,” Bertiz said.
“In fact, TESDA’s official website provides a step-by-step video guide on how to make the washable face mask, including a downloadable pattern,” Bertiz pointed out.
“The face masks that TESDA has been producing with help of its training centers across the country are being distributed for free to returning Filipino migrant workers as well as frontliners in the fight against COVID-19,” Bertiz, a former member of Congress, said.
Bertiz said TESDA may seek the help its mother agency, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in mobilizing highly labor-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises in the garments sector to quickly scale up the production of the face masks.
President Rodrigo Duterte recently ordered the DILG to enforce the mandatory wearing of face masks in public.
President Rodrigo Duterte recently ordered the DILG to enforce the mandatory wearing of face masks in public, and to apprehend those who fail to comply.
To help fight COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been pushing for the widespread use of face masks when people are outside of their homes.
The mask is meant to trap droplets that are released when the wearer talks, coughs or sneezes, and helps reduce the spread of COVID-19 by individuals who are not aware that they already have the virus.