Clothing factories will begin producing millions of free face masks for Britons working as closure eases – The Sun

ROPA factories will start producing millions of fabric coverings for the British to get to work.

The ministers are in secret talks with manufacturers to provide the masks for daily use as part of the fight against the coronavirus.

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Under government plans, the new cloth masks will be issued to all key workers for free, from doctors and nurses to teachers.

The reveal comes ahead of a planned mask announcement by Boris Johnson on Sunday, The Sun may also reveal.

In a major change in government policy, the Prime Minister will ask people to wear the new cloth masks on public transport and in the workplace where social distancing is difficult.

Boris sees the use of masks as a key device for building confidence to persuade nervous Britons to return to work, say No10 insiders.

The request, as outlined in its “unlocking” roadmap, will not take effect immediately, but when deemed safe to begin easing the current tough Covid-19 restrictions, scheduled for the last week of May.

‘CONFIDENCE BUILDING DEVICE’

To guard against concern that the briefing could see a run on medical-grade masks and strip the NHS of vital supplies of PPE, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove was tasked with leading another major new industrial mobilization.

The Sun has learned that contracts are about to be signed with manufacturers abroad to ship a large initial supply of cloth masks.

Talks are also underway with underemployed British clothing manufacturers to change their idle supply lines to make the masks.

Led by Lord Agnew, the plan will see UK manufacturers soon making “many millions a week”.

A Whitehall source said last night: “The internal effort to cover your face is sensible contingency planning to ensure that the demand for medical grade PPE is not overwhelmed if the boards change.”

After a long debate, experts from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies have told ministers that cloth masks could help limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Instead of preventing people from contracting the disease, they are considered useful in preventing already infected people from expelling drops from the mouth and nose.

In providing evidence to parliamentarians, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told the Commons Health Committee: “The masks can have a positive marginal effect in that situation, or could be covered in some way.”

He explained: “The evidence is that essentially one minute at two meters of contact is almost the same risk as six seconds at one meter, so it gives you an idea of ​​why the two meters becomes important.”

“And the risk at one meter is approximately 10 to 30 times greater than the risk at two meters, so distance is an important part of this. Where masks can therefore play a role is in situations where distancing is not possible. “

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Pointing to his thinking about the masks last week, Johnson said they “will be useful” when Britain begins to emerge from the closure.