By Raymund Antonio Got a design for protective gears? Do you have any ideas in mind? Vice President Leni Robredo has called on the public on Monday to come up with a design for personal protective equipment (PPE) which can be produced locally to fight the coronavirus crisis. Vice-President Leni Robredo
(Mark Balmores / MANILA BULLETIN) Two days later, fashion designer Mich Dulce made a pitch for her “open source gown” design to Robredo. She is also a partner of Angat Buhay, Robredo’s flagship program. Her protective suit pattern was already reviewed by the Open Source COVID-19 Medical Supplies medical team in Berkeley, California. “Recommendation is to use Tyvek as the material for the gowns,” Robredo said in a Facebook post on Thursday. Tyvek is a thin and flexible covering that‘s readily available in hardware stores. The vice president shared photos of Dulce’s full-sized design, an actual replica of the protective suit. PHOTO FROM OVP/ MANILA BULLETIN Dulce and her team were among many fashion designers pitching to help make personal protective equipment for health workers and other essential personnel as supplies ran short due to the coronavirus disease pandemic. With the scarcity, the COVID-19 frontliners have improvised their PPEs using plastics, trash bags, and recyclable plastic containers to protect them from the deadly disease. “While we have done our best to make it as impermeable as possible, these suits are not medical grade, but still can be used by other hospital workers and staff who don’t necessarily come in direct contact with patients,” the designer said in a post. PHOTO FROM OVP/ MANILA BULLETIN Dulce encouraged local makers who will use her design to standardize the suits. “ Hope this is useful to everyone trying to make suits. Let's make them the best quality we can,” she said.