Guernsey Press

If you use a face mask make sure to launder it

FACE MASKS must not be allowed to lull islanders into a false sense of security, the island’s Director of Public Health has said.

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Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink. (27913959)

As the use of face masks becomes a hot topic across the world, since both the American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization updated their position to support the use of cloth masks in public as an additional step to reduce the spread of infection, Dr Nicola Brink has issued advice for our own Bailiwick.

‘The WHO issued some new interim guidelines yesterday [Monday] on the use of masks,’ she said.

‘I think the use of masks in clinical settings and symptomatic people I don’t think that’s a matter of dispute, the issue is the use of masks in the wider community in people with no symptoms.

‘One of the things I’m really concerned about is we must not use the use of masks to lull us into a false sense of security and that’s really important.

‘So if people are symptomatic I do not want them putting a mask on and saying great I can go out it’s absolutely fine, it’s not fine, symptomatic people need to stay at home in self-isolation.’

In Jersey, the Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ivan Muscat, said although there was limited direct data on the use of cloth masks for Covid-19, there was good supportive evidence from other infections and good theoretical reasons to believe they will be helpful in reducing the transmission of the virus.

Dr Brink, however, said in Guernsey the use of cloth masks was the choice of individuals, adding that surgical masks should be used only by healthcare workers and in healthcare settings and with a worldwide shortage of them she expressed dismay at those people who were using them in the wider community with no symptoms.

She said, based on evidence, which would be continuously reviewed, Public Health, would support people’s personal choice to use a cloth mask in the community, as long as they were not symptomatic.

‘If you look at cloth masks, if they are not properly used they can in fact present a risk to that person,’ she said.

‘If you are going to use a cloth mask you need to launder it properly, you need to tumble dry it, you need to iron it, so all of that is really important.’

HSC medical director Dr Peter Rabey. (27913964)

Addressing concerns about the current worldwide shortage of both face masks and rumours that countries such as the US are hijacking masks made by a US firm for themselves, Health & Social Care medical director Dr Peter Rabey said they currently had big orders in place and had enough on-island to last at the moment.

‘We’ve got orders in place, but absolutely there is a worldwide shortage and some countries are looking after themselves in the first instance and that affects us,’ he said.

‘The procurement team have been fantastic, they have followed up every lead, they’ve got orders in places we’ve never heard of and the on-island response has been great.’