Jakarta to give away masks for free

Passengers wear masks in the arrival hall of Bali's Denpasar airport. CREDIT: AMILIA ROSA. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

JAKARTA, Apr 30, 2020, Jakarta Globe. Jakarta plans to give away two cloth face masks to every resident of the capital to help slow the spread of Covid-19, Governor Anies Baswedan said on Wednesday, Jakarta Globe reported.

Anies said the city plans to commission tailors in the city to produce 20 million cloth masks soon.

“Twenty million fabric masks will be distributed to every resident of Jakarta,” Anies said when visiting a mask factory at a Pasar Jaya warehouse in the Jakarta Industrial Estate (JIEP) in Pulogadung, East Jakarta.

“Each person will receive a pack of two masks,” he said.

The governor said with the city administration giving away the masks for free, there’s no reason for residents not to wear masks when they go out in public.

Pasar Jaya has already produced 1.5 million cloth masks ready for distribution today.

“We have to work together to stop the spread of Covid-19 by wearing these masks. They are produced by the Jakarta provincial government for free. Everyone must wear a mask when they leave the house,” Anies said.

Jakarta is the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in Indonesia with 4,092 confirmed cases, 440 recoveries and 370 deaths as of Wednesday.

The province has 42 percent of the total coronavirus cases in Indonesia.

It has implemented large-scale social restriction (PSBB) by closing schools and offices and limiting public transportation to try to stem the pandemic.

Share it


Exclusive: Beyond the Covid-19 world's coverage