Homemade masks get the green light

Writer: Taylum Meyer & Hedda Mittner.

In an about-face on the issue of using face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Western Cape has become the first province to recommend the use of cloth masks for the general public. In a press release dated 2 April, the WC Department of Health stated that, in response to growing evidence, “the wider use of masks are indicated even for people who are not ill, especially if they move around in public”.

The important thing to remember is that medical masks and N95 respirators are critically needed by our frontline health care workers, which is why all residents are urged not to obtain these and rather leave them for the doctors and medical staff working in hospitals and clinics to save lives.

The press release also emphasises that wearing a homemade cloth mask does not make you invulnerable and should not be used in isolation, but in addition to the current public health strategies to flatten the curve i.e. staying at home; keeping a two-metre physical distance from others; washing your hands regularly for at least 20 seconds; avoiding touching your face; sanitising surfaces; wide-spread screening and testing, and intensive contact tracing of COVID-19 cases.

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