Rio samba schools sew scrubs in virus effort

Rio de Janeiro's samba schools spend the year furiously sewing costumes for a blowout celebration: Carnival. They're now putting their nimble fingers toward protecting lives instead, making gear for hospital workers who face a surge of COVID-19 patients.

The initiative started with Dr. Wille Baracho and one of his colleagues from the nearby hospital emergency room where they've seen a shortage of materials. Both also happen to sit on Unidos de Padre Miguel samba school's board and saw a chance to redirect labour. The city got on board and donated thousands of yards of fabric, and the seamstresses set in on April 3.

At Padre Miguel's workshop, Jucelia Abreu and her fellow seamstresses feed fabric through their machines and snip at threads unspooling from their bobbins. Others from the samba school are doing the same at home. Together, the team churns out some 450 sets of scrubs each day.

The Unidos da Vila Isabel samba school on Tuesday joined the effort, with two seamstresses getting to work in a warehouse. Behind them, massive blue and green feather headdresses sat on the floor.

More will start sewing soon, both from Vila Isabel and elsewhere as top samba schools across the city are expected to sign on, according to Eneida Reis, executive director of assistance at RioSaude, a public company that manages municipal health units.

Every willing hand is welcome; at just one municipal hospital that's treating Covid-19 patients, doctors and nurses can go through 2,000 sets of scrubs each day, according to RioSaude.

Rio has Brazil's second-biggest cluster of Covid-19, with 1,250 cases, plus a few hundred more in the surrounding metro area, according to data from the state health secretariat.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and a cough that clear up in two to three weeks.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and could lead to death.