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Coronavirus: masks to spare? Here’s how to help those most in need in Hong Kong
- Street cleaners and the needy are forced to reuse the limited supplies of masks they have
- Charities and individuals are busy collecting and handing out supplies to vulnerable groups
Reading Time:6 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
The coronavirus outbreak has turned masks into a valuable commodity globally, but if you are fortunate enough to have spare ones, there are many people in Hong Kong who desperately need some.
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Charities and individuals are working round the clock to collect and distribute supplies to underprivileged groups in the city.
They tell the Post about some of the vulnerable groups most in need – street cleaners, low-income families, the blind and the elderly – and how people can help, as Hong Kong recorded its 50th confirmed case of the coronavirus, which causes the disease now officially known as Covid-19.
1. Street cleaners
Despite Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s pledge last Saturday that each month 700,000 masks produced by Correctional Services Industries, or prison inmates, would be allocated to contract street cleaners, a major union and trade association for the sector said they had yet to be approached by officials about how and when they would be distributed.
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The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and its outsourced service contractors have 11,900 workers providing public cleaning services.
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