As the country is set to open schools as of end of October, the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia said it will distribute 50 million facemasks to schools across the country as schools for free.
This is indicated on Wednesday at the handover ceremony of some 5 million facemasks produced in Hawassa Industrial Park to the Ministry. It is stated that the remaining 45 million facemasks will be produced in the coming weeks.
It is indicated that of the total 50 million facemasks, 23 million will be distributed to students below grade 3 including those in kindergarten. Schools with students from grade 40 to 12 will receive the remaining 27 million facemasks.
The Ministry indicated that it will distribute the facemasks to all the schools in the country before the schools reopen. Following the outbreak of the global pandemic, all schools are closed for the past six months. So far over 1,300 people in Ethiopia have lost their lives while over 80,000 cases are reported in the country.