WHO: No benefit for general public to wear mask amid nCoV scare

People buying protective masks at a medical supplies store in Manila on January 31, 2020.
AFP/Ted Aljibe

MANILA, Philippines — The World Health Organization on Tuesday said it does not see any benefit of the

general public wearing masks amid the novel coronavirus (2019-

nCoV) threat.

Rabindra

Abeyasinghe, acting WHO representative in the Philippines, said it would be preferable to reserve masks for high-risk individuals, including health workers.

"Our message is that we need to be rational about the use of masks. Factually, it shows that non-symptomatic people using masks — it will give them a false sense of confidence and put them at more risk because they

tend to wash hands less,"

Abeyasinghe said in a Senate hearing.

The WHO representative stressed that people with respiratory symptoms need to practice cough etiquette and wear masks but everybody should wash their hands frequently.

Abeyasinghe added that those with respiratory symptoms, such as coughs and colds, should wear their masks properly and wash their hands regularly.

"Just because you wear a mask you should not neglect keeping your hands clean because if you touch the mask and if you have droplets on the outer surface of the mask that somebody else coughed on, you can get infected so what is more important is hand hygiene," he said.

The WHO doctor also warned that the virus can be present on utensils and other home items where an infected person has coughed.

Citing evidence,

Abeyasinghe told the Senate inquiry that the virus can survive on those surfaces from eight to 10 hours.

"If you have somebody sick who is having respiratory symptoms make sure

that you

make an effort to clean surfaces that

are handled by those people," the WHO representative said.

China's National Health Commission confirmed that infections in the 2019-

nCoV outbreak have passed 20,400 nationwide with 3,235 cases confirmed.

The first death from the virus has been recorded in the Philippines last Saturday, which is also the second confirmed case of the illness in the country.

The Department of Health announced that a 44-year-old Chinese man, which is a companion of the first confirmed 2019-

nCoV patient in the country, died days after

he was admitted for fever, cough and sore throat.

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