Czech prisoners have started making face masks to fill short supply during coronavirus outbreak

Prague, March 16 (CTK) – Czech prisoners will be making face masks as the supply does not meet the demand in the current coronavirus outbreak, Czech Prison Service spokeswoman Petra Kucerova told CTK today, adding that the men’s prison in Pardubice, east Bohemia, started to make them already today.

She said prisoners would be able to make up to 40,000 face masks a month.

“They will make face masks for repeated wearing and from medically recommended materials,” Kucerova said.

The Prison Service will offer the face masks to the Czech state so that it can distribute them among the citizens according to its own priorities, she said.

The Pardubice men’s prison otherwise makes clothes for prisoners.

Masks made of cloth do not protect the person who wears it from the virus, but it prevents infected people from spreading the virus.

Interior Minister Jan Hamacek (Social Democrats, CSSD) admitted today that there was a lack of face masks.

Hamacek and Health Minister Adam Vojtech (for ANO) called on people to move in public space with their mouth and nose covered. If people do not have a face mask, a scarf or a shawl can be used, they said.

On social networking websites, people share instructions for the production of home-made face masks. The government decided today that fabric and haberdashery stores may be opened so that people can make face masks on their own.

On Friday, the government decided that all shops and services be closed across the country as of Saturday morning, with some exceptions such as food stores, drugstores, pharmacies and petrol stations.