Hanoi Volunteer Group Makes Mask-Holding Accessories To Ease Frontline Workers’ Discomfort

Mask-holding accessory for frontline workers

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Wearing a mask in public helps protect you from COVID-19 – everybody knows that. But have you ever spent a couple of hours performing essential chores outside the house with a mask on, and find the discomfort of its strings tugging on the back of your ears increasing by the minute?

Now imagine how painful it’d be wearing a mask all day, every day, for weeks on end. That is what frontline workers are going through right now. To help ease their discomfort, a group of volunteers in Hanoi has been making simple accessories that can be placed behind wearers’ heads to hold their masks.

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Simple and effective face mask accessories

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These accessories, courtesy of a Hanoi-based volunteer group named Anti COVID-19, are long silicone pieces with notches on both ends. Putting one behind the head, the wearer can use these notches to hold the strings of a mask to take the pressure off their ears.

The accessories are simple
Image credit: Dân Trí 

Mr. Phan Mạnh Hà, owner of a leather factory and a member of the group, told Dân Trí that given his experience working with leather and the equipment he already has on hand, making these accessories is not too complicated.

Using these silicone pieces to hold the mask helps take the pressure off the ears
Image credit: Dân Trí 

Indeed, the makers simply have to put silicone panels on premade molds, and then put them through a hydraulic press to cut them to the right size and shape.

So far, the group has already made thousands of these mask-holding accessories to gift to hospitals around Hanoi.

Silicone panels are put in molds and then put through a hydraulic press to cut
Image credit: Dân Trí 

Mdm. Nguyễn Thị Thùy Trang, another member of the group, told Dân Trí that they originally intended to use leather to make the accessories, but ultimately opted for silicone as it’s lighter and can be more easily sanitized for reuse.

Mr. Hà’s sons helping with the process
Image credit: Dân Trí 

The accessories have multiple notches to adjust to different head sizes, and come in two variations for ordinary medical masks and N95 masks.

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Taking care of frontline workers

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Frontline workers are working relentlessly to keep us safe from COVID-19, but their services are often taken for granted. It is heartening to see that people are doing what they can to look after them.

Surely the accessories will provide both practical help and a morale boost to keep our heroes going.

For more COVID-19 stories, check out:

• Artists portray medical workers as superheroes
• Frontline workers get unexpected pets as donated baluts hatched
• Vietnamese woman cooks chicken stew for police officers

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Cover image adapted from Dân Trí 

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