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Thanks Ashish Yadav for the questionHow do you see the initiative of the Kerala government to engage prisoners in manufacturing masks to tackle the shortage of masks?Well, I see this as one of the best things this government of Kerala doing in its fight against the Pandemic Covid 19.Like majority parts of the world and in India, there is a terrible shortage of masks. Most of the masks thats available costs 100–200% of their original priceA simple Rs 2 worth ordinary face mask costs more than 40 Rs and still not available. N95 Mask which originally costed inbetween Rs 100–150, now costs 600–700 Rs.We can’t blame chemists/pharmacists for doing any sort of price hike, as these hikes comes from the manufacturers themself due to the extraordinary demand.In addition to all these, there are reports of wholesalers and stockists hoarding up stocks to sell in black market and illegal exports as the prices are so lucrative. Recently Kochi Police arrested a wholesalers who hoarded Rs 1 Lakh worth masks which he illegally exported to Dubai for a whopping Rs 30 Lakh. The condition is same across India. Due to this, the Govt of India has brought Masks and Sanitizers under Essential commodities act, so that the prices can be regulated and fixed by Govt. Though the govt fixed the costs of ordinary one-time use mask to 20 Rs, the rates are hovering inbetween Rs 25 to 30 (Original cost- 2–3 Rs). This is primarily because manufacturers are working at their maximum capacity and the demand has surpassed all limits.Technically speaking, there is no need of masks as such, because Covid is not an airborne disease. So a mask cannot simply protect someone in streets, as the infection mostly passes thro’ droplets from body of infected. The mask is just to protect mouth and nose from being touched by one’s own hand regularly, which is the common way of getting infected. So a simple cotton mask will do that job, as there is no much need of N95, other than for those infected or working close with infected patients like doctors or nurses or medical fraternity.The government tried a lot educating people not to buy medical masks panickingly, but it had little effect. So the govt tried a lot to educate people just using ordinary towels or handkerchiefs as face mask to prevent hands being regularly touching the face. Still, people wants some sort of face masks as its not easy to keep towels regularly on face.Further as patients with flu and other kinds of fever are walking freely around, every single cough or sneezing in public has created a huge anxiety, due to which DHS is now mandating everyone to wear a mask, so as its a basic protection.Its in this context, Kerala Govt announced mass manufacturing of ordinary double layer cotton masks which can be re-used and washable.Its not aimed for medical fraternity to use so, rather for ordinary commoners to use on daily basis while being outside as a secondary measure of protection. Due to huge demand of masks and lack of enough supply, Kerala State Social Justice Department has asked Prisons department whether they can support in production of cloth masks.#COVID19 | Solving The Mask Problem 😷In light of the shortage, directions were given to engage the prisons in the State in manufacturing masks. It has commenced on a war footing basis. Today, the Prison officials of Thiruvananthapuram Jail have handed over the first batch. pic.twitter.com/QKgHWqYNOg— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) March 14, 2020When this was posed to Inmates, everyone volunteered to be part of this new task as part of combating Covid 19. The 3 Central Prisons, the 3 Women prisons and the Open Jail already had a full fledged modern Tailoring unit as part of making textiles operated by Prison Boutiques- Free Fashionista. All these units now stopped making textiles and devoted in making face masks since last Friday evening. Officials from Social Justice Department, Hindustan Lifecare Limited and Medical Supplies Corporation came forward to train prisoners in mask making and by Saturday evening, they produced the first set of 1000 Masks which was handed over to DHS.Yesterday, ie Sunday, 3 Prisons together worked to produced 5000 Masks. The aim is to produce 10,000 Masks per day from Tailoring units across 7 prisons. The production is happening 24x7 in 3 batches.Prisons DG- Rishiraj Singh IPS explaining the whole ideaThe masks are sold to Government for Rs 15 which is now subsidized to Rs 8 by the Govt to be sold from all State Pharmacies like Neeti and Karunya Pharmacies.In addition the government also announced supply of free masks to underprivileged senior citizens (below BPL line) which will be home-delivered in the same address (as used by sending Old age social security pensions) as well as to all in tribal settlements.Kerala prisoners churn out 6,000 masks in 2 days to fight shortage amid coronavirus panicKerala ropes in prisoners to counter mask shortageKerala prisoners too join fight against COVID-19 by making masksCOVID-19: Inmates of Kerala jails make face masks to tackle shortageKerala jails produce face masks to tackle demand-supply gap in the stateApart from Face Masks, the state Government has directed state run Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited to mass produce Hand Sanitizers that have 60% alcohol. Since KSDPL has drug licence for cosmetic lotions and skin products, the production now started at its Alleppey factory. The Govt ordered to State Excise and Narcotics Department to release the seized illicit spirits stored in excise warehouses to be used for making sanitizers by KSDPL. The company is one of the few who has supplied essential drugs and medicines to WHO activities in many other countries and hence has a huge repute for its stringent international norms and quality standards.The Govt has set an ambitious target to mass produce 1 Lakh 500 ML bottles of Hand Sanitizers to be used in all PHCs, Govt hospitals and in public places in next 10 days of time. The Hand sanitizers will be sold to Govt for Rs 150 without taking any profit margin. Resale of sanitizers to public will be considered shortly.The govt is mulling idea for mass production of smaller bottles of Hand sanitizers to be sold in Public for Rs 75–100 after its target is met.The government just announced a new campaign- BREAK THE CHAIN CHALLENGE that mandates and encourages public to regularly use Hand Sanitizers to break the spread of diseases. The new policy now requires public to carry Sanitizers with them as well as companies/employers to keep a bottle at the entrance for all employees/visitors to use the same.KSDP produces hand sanitisersExcise dept. releases illicit spirit to make sanitisersAt this hour of crisis, its priority for Governments to be pro-active and fight hard against this new threat. I am extremely proud and happy, that my state’s government is fully geared to counter this threat. Its more resounding when we hear our Health Minister Shylaja Teacher’s declaration that Kerala will strive not to have a single death due to Covid and we are extremely proud of our Health fraternity's untiring efforts in ensuring not a single one dies in the state due to this global threat.For that, the efforts of Govt to combat the disease by mass producing masks and sanitizers inspires everyone here to use it regularly and ensure the chain of infection gets broken and thereby control spreading.Its indeed proud to see our Govt working to develop masks and other equipment to combat this disease rather working on horse-trading MPs/MLAs etc etc…