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Wearing a mask key to fighting coronavirus
With the daily spike in the cases of the coronavirus, wearing of masks — in addition to other preventive measures like staying at home, hand washing and keeping social distance — might help to slow down the spread of Covid-19.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) revised its stand on masks, acknowledging that wearing a medical mask is one of the prevention measures that can limit the spread of certain respiratory viral diseases, including Covid-19.
The revision came after months of dithering on the issue despite mounting evidence that countries that adopted the use of masks for everyone, such as China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan, have slowed down the lethal itinerary of Covid-19 as compared to the United States and Europe.
They recorded fewer infections and deaths.
Even before WHO’s advisory, Health Cabinet Secretary had called on Kenyans to start wearing masks outdoors to stop the spread of the disease.
Barely an hour after the post was published on the organisation’s website, scientists criticised WHO for failing to acknowledge the role that people who do not show symptoms of the disease play in the transmission of Covid-19 and how masks can stop that.
