The pandemic has forced us to take quite a ton of precautionary measures and one of those measures includes us wearing face mask at all times. The reason being the Coronavirus is spread through direct contact from person to person and one should cover their hands/mouths for full precautionary measures.
There are different kinds of protective equipment available in the market and one such thing is called the face mask. Now, you may have already seen people wearing one these days but there’s a distinction.
While everyone is wearing a face mask, people are going for a different kind like a simple surgical mask, an N95 mask, and what not and even sometimes what they would do is just tie a piece of cloth around their mouth.
So, the question is that is it safe? and what should we do to make it most effective? We’ll be talking about surgical masks and their usage as other two categories are either quite useless or too useful.
What Is a Surgical Mask and How to Use It?
We can use a surgical mask by tying it around our mouth with the little elastic bands it comes with. Now, the layer of the mask functions differently which is as follows:
- The outer layer repels water, blood, and other body fluids.
- The middle layer filters certain pathogens.
- The inner layer absorbs moisture and sweat from exhaled air.
Unlike higher price masks like N95 one, these do not protect against things like cough droplets and particles that could slide in from the loose side openings. They are for one time use and then you need to dispose of them for good.
How to Wear a Surgical Mask?
You should follow this procedure in order to wear a face mask:
- Wash your hands and face before putting in a mask.
- Check if mask has any kind of fault and if it does, replace it.
- put it over your face covering your nose and mouth completely. Don’t let it hang onto your neck or expose your nose, for they eradicate the point of wearing one.
- When mask gets soiled, remove it and get a new one.
- While removing away the mask, clean again using sanitizer.
- if you’re throwing away a mask, make sure that it should go into the garbage and not be accessible to anyone who could get infected by that.
Should You Be Using It or Going for an N95 Respirator?
Well! if you listen to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) then they’ve requested that the normal individuals should not get themselves a face mask.
The reason being that while it may save you from a certain degree of infection, there’s no surety but the people in the field are going through a shortage of masks for the normal individual are purchasing them on a daily basis. The question here is that who needs it the most, you to them?
Also read- COVID-19 Patients Can Likely Suffer From Mental Illness
What to Do If Not to Use the Face Mask?
There are other factors that can save you from something like Covid-19 and they are as follows:
- The first and foremost thing would be to rest at home and stay there.
- Avoid public places as they increase your chances of getting infected.
- Use hand sanitizers that have 60% Alcohol content.
- Don’t touch your face frequently and especially not when you are in public or near potential virus carriers.
- Personal hygiene plays an important role and you should have a good one.
So, these were some tips on how, why, and why not you should use protective equipment like a face mask. The decision is upon you but thinks before you act, this is what we can say. Stay at home for a little while and let the authorities take care.
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