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Designer Christian Siriano offers to help make protective masks for coronavirus health workers

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Fashion designer Christian Siriano is offering the use of his design team to produce face masks to help with reported hospital supply shortages due to the coronavirus. 

The 34-year-old fashion pro and “Project Runway” alum tweeted on Friday:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said in a subsequent tweet that he’s in touch with Siriano’s team, asking who else can assist with the state’s efforts.

State officials across the country have said they’ve faced a shortage of masks and other equipment to help protect health care workers treating patients with the coronavirus. Many hospitals have indicated that they’re quickly depleting their stockpiles of masks.

On Thursday, the British Fashion Council urged designers to “help in the manufacture of essential products including masks.”

“In times of need,” the British nonprofit wrote on Instagram, “the fashion industry can be of service.”

The Council of Fashion Designers of America didn’t respond to ITK’s request for comment Friday about whether it planned on making a similar call to action.

Earlier this week, Inditex, the owner of the fashion retailer Zara, announced that it would start creating and providing masks to the Spanish government to help fight the coronavirus. The company said it also planned to use its factories to produce medical gowns.

As of Friday, there were more than 14,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States with at least 200 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Updated at 2:46 p.m.

Tags Christian Siriano Coronavirus fashion industry Project Runway

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