CMAAO CORONA FACTS and MYTH Masks for public 

Dr K Aggarwal, President CMAAO with input from Dr Monica Vasudev

IMA-CMAAO Webinar

India

healthysoch

New Delhi, December 06, 2020:

WHO On COVID Masks for Public

1. WHO tightened guidelines on wearing face masks
2. Recommending that, where COVID-19 is spreading, they be worn by everyone in health care facilities and for all interactions in poorly-ventilated indoor spaces.
3.  In June, the WHO urged governments to ask everyone to wear fabric masks in indoor and outdoor public areas where there was a risk of transmission of the virus.
4.  WHO said that, where the epidemic was spreading, people – including children and students aged 12 or over – should always wear masks in shops, workplaces and schools that lack adequate ventilation, and when receiving visitors at home in poorly ventilated rooms.
5.  Masks should also be worn outdoors and in well ventilated indoor spaces where physical distancing of at least one meter (3 ft) could not be maintained.
6.  Masks – which protect against transmission of the virus rather than infection – needed to be accompanied by other precautions such as hand-washing.
7.  In areas of COVID-19 spread, it also advised “universal” wearing of medical masks in health care facilities, including when caring for other patients.
8.  The advice applied to visitors, outpatients and to common areas such as cafeterias and staff rooms.
9.  Health care workers could wear N95 respirator masks if available when caring for COVID-19 patients, but their only proven protection is when they are doing aerosol-generating procedures which carry higher risks
10.  People doing vigorous physical activity not wear masks, particularly asthamatics
11.  Adequate ventilation, physical distancing and disinfection of “high-touch surfaces” in the gym must be maintained, or their temporarily closure should be considered.

Excerpts from Reuters

healthysoch