Rio samba schools start sewing scrubs in coronavirus effort

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro’s samba schools usually spend the year furiously sewing costumes for the city’s blowout Carnival celebration. Now, nimble fingers are working to protect lives instead, making medical wear for hospital workers who face a surge of coronavirus patients. The initiative started with two doctors from a hospital emergency room where they have seen a shortage of materials. Both happen to sit on the board of the Unidos de Padre Miguel samba school, and saw a chance to redirect labor. Now the school”s seamstresses are making some 450 medical outfits each day. Every willing hand is welcome: At just a single municipal hospital treating COVID-19 patients, doctors and nurses can go through 2,000 daily.