TORONTO -- American fashion designer Christian Siriano has offered to make face masks to help protect health-care workers from COVID-19, and New York’s governor has accepted his offer.
Siriano and Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to reach an agreement on Twitter on Friday.
Siriano, who is also a host of reality TV show “Project Runway,” tweeted at Cuomo that his staff were all working from home and could produce masks if needed.
Cuomo’s office tweeted back that they would message Siriano with more details.
Cuomo also put out a call for others to contribute if they could.
Siriano later posted a photo to his social media showing prototypes of the masks his staff had produced, noting that more details would soon be released.
“(We) will be making a few versions of this in order to help as many people as we can,” he wrote on Instagram. “Here is the process so we can get a perfect fit.. we hope to get these to the right people ASAP.”
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb, governments around the world are grappling with shortages of critical medical supplies, including face masks, ventilators, hand sanitizer and diagnostic tests.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian government is in talks with industry about how companies can pivot and start producing the much-needed items.