WOODBURY, Minn. — A rectangle of blue material is how it starts. Then with a little cut, thread and needle by seamstress Maly Vu, hundreds end up as ready-to-wear masks ready to distribute to healthcare workers in the Twin Cities.
"Like 30 here, 40 there, 20 there," Vu said. "I kind of lost count but the batch that doctor came to pick up last time was a little bit over 400," Vu said.
She's talking about Dr. David Thao. He's head of the Hmong Medical Association and is donating the sterilization wraps. Thao is a plastic surgeon who isn’t using the wraps because his office is closed under Gov. Walz stay at home order.
"That is very strong, it’s made of this polypropylene material and it’s basically the material we use for our surgical gowns or surgical equipment," Thao said.
Thao wanted to help the rest of his colleagues in the medical field. But while he may be an expert in his field, he knew he needed to bring in Maly to make a difference.
"Whatever skill you have, this is the time that we can kind of use those skills and our resources to come together," Thao said.
Thao has been collecting the masks from Maly's Woodbury shop, City Tailor. He's dropping them off to hospitals and clinics because those healthcare workers? Their skills are treating sick people, and they need protection.
Dr. Molly Yang is an internal medicine doctor at a local hospital and is also a member of the association. She said they're being told to treat the N95 masks like gold.
"Normally, before the COVID days we toss those masks out after patient visits without any thought, but now they’re asking for them to be preserved for an entire week - one mask - it just shows how important this is," Yang said.
Yang said the work Vu and others are doing will allow hospitals and clinics to have what they need when it comes to supplies.
"This pandemic hit all of us," Vu said. Her shop is set to open when the governor's order is lifted. But she said she plans to sew masks until that happens.
"One person can’t do it all, right?" Vu said in Hmong.
Vu said she has gotten so many requests for masks, she can't keep up.
Thao said he's now enlisted the help of a Facebook group to produce even more masks.