An 84-year-old grandmother has volunteered to sew 50 face masks a day and donate them to local hospitals in Spain because she could not "sit idly" at home.

Margarita Gil Baro, from Cádiz, southwestern Spain, spends eight hours a day on a sewing machine to make face masks after she learned from her daughter, Ina, that she would have to stay home for the next few weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Margarita, who has been a seamtress since the age of 10, decided to help the medical workers and used the white cotton-lined fabric that she had at home to make the medical equipment.

In a video widely shared online, the gran appears emotional as she carefully sews by her desk.

She stitches the thread together and attaches the ear loops onto the face masks.

Margarita, who is now bounded at home, starts working at 9am and finishes at 3pm, then takes a break for an hour before resuming until 8pm every day, according to local newspaper El Mundo.

She can make as many as 50 face masks in one day.

Her son Domingo, who helps to source the fabric for his mother, recalled what Maragarita told him in an interview with the outlet, saying: "'I can't sit idly by watching this [coronavirus outbreak] happen, finding out that there are more and more sick and dead people. I'm going to start making masks', she told me. And she started to make masks."

The idea came after she read how coronavirus has hit Spain and found out the medical staff were short of personal protective equipment.

She realised she could help out while staying at home and started making masks in hopes to send the supplies to the local hospitals.

After Italy, Spain is the country worst affected by Covid-19 with more than 85,000 confirmed cases and 7,340 deaths.

The figure means it has overtaken China – the epicentre of the disease – with the number of cases.

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