When the world faces significantly challenging times like these, it’s important not to lose sight of the less fortunate among us.
That’s why we’ve made the important decision to create 1,500 face masks for an ‘at risk’ community that’s located where our manufacturing operations take place: Larciano, Italy. This is an area which has been badly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Michele Carbone (Co-Founder of Project Blu) stated: “COVID-19 is the first globalised emergency for mankind, it has woken our conscience. From this point onwards, worldwide viruses will be the biggest threat for humanity. All members of the community must be organised like an army ready to fight; if we lose time we will lose lives.”
Protecting the most affected
Tuscany has one of the oldest populations in the world, so the local community is already at increased risk. Of its 3.5 million inhabitants, about 800,000 (22.7%) are 65 years of age and older and, of these, about 10% are disabled in one or more activities of daily living.
Covid-19 has killed more people in Italy than in any other country, after deaths there rose by 427 in a day (19th March 2020). Italy is facing a shortage of personal protective equipment, including face masks.
To help relieve the pressure Project Blu decided to temporarily turn our resources away from manufacturing pet products into manufacturing face masks, providing some relief to local production companies and donating 1,500 masks for use in the local community.