Greek textile and apparel producers ready to throw weight into masks

Fifty-five Greek textile and apparel production firms are ready to supply the local market with 8 million face masks a month to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the sector's association said on Wednesday.

"With the addition of this production potential, sufficiency in this country can be assured," the director general of the Association of Apparel and Textile Producers (SEPEE), Theofilos Aslanidis, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

According to Aslanidis, SEPEE sent letters to 560 businesses in the sector asking who could contribute to efforts to ensure that the Greek population has a sufficient supply of paper and cloth face masks. "I did not expect such a great response," Aslandidis said of the 55 firms that expressed their readiness to pitch in.

Demand for masks has soared in recent days after cloth or paper coverings for the nose and mouth were...