Chandigarh’s arrest move: Homemade masks in focus

A day after UT’s decision to arrest people not wearing face masks to stave off Covid-19, health experts, including those from the PGIMER, apprehending panic buying of medical-grade masks, have asked people to go for homemade cloth masks.

Notably, UT adviser Manoj Parida in a tweet on Wednesday suggested that cloth masks were least effective in containing the virus while Punjab CM Amarinder Singh tweeted on Thursday that a piece of clean cloth was all that one required to stay safe.

However, medical experts whom HT contacted on Friday say that cloth masks may not be fully protective but offer a certain degree of safety from the coronavirus to relatively healthier persons, provided that it is properly used.

Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) director Dr Jagat Ram said that surgical or N-95 masks should better be left for frontline health workers as they are more exposed to the risk than healthy persons staying in a safe environment. It is advisable that the latter make masks at home, preferably with cotton fabric and use it properly, he said.

“Medical-grade masks are already scarce, forcing our health workers to use homemade masks who are repeatedly exposed to the virus greatly,” Ram said.

Dr Ravindra Khaiwal, additional professor, environmental health, School of Public Health, PGIMER, too said that homemade masks protect the wearer from unknowingly spreading the virus to others. “The masks are useful when several people who have Covid-19 are showing no symptoms. Any face covering is better than nothing,” he added.

What government advisories say?

A document issued by the office of the principal scientific adviser to the Government of India on April 3 said that although social distancing and personal hygiene are key to prevent Covid-19 infections, certain countries have claimed benefits of homemade face covers for the general public. But this face cover is not recommended for either health workers or Covid-19 patients.

“A normal healthy person must make two sets of homemade face covers so that one can be washed while the other is in use... Such face covers should also not be thrown anywhere but kept safely, washed properly with soap and hot water and dried properly before they are used everyday,” it added.

US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two layers of tightly woven 100 percent cotton fabric, such as bedsheets with a high thread count to increase the protection level of homemade masks.

Box: USE IT RIGHT

The mask should be made out of clean cloth available at home

Wash the fabric well and dry it well before making the face cover

It must cover mouth and nose

Each member in family should have a separate face cover

Before reuse, wash the face cover in soap and warm water and leave it to dry in hot sun

Such face covers should also not be thrown anywhere but kept safely

Follow the link (https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/Advisory&ManualonuseofHomemadeProtectiveCoverforFace&Mouth.pdf) to know how to stitch homemade masks

(Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)