CMO recommends surgical, KN95 and N95 masks over cloth masks
With COVID-19 continuing its latest surge in the Virgin Islands, Acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Ronald Georges is once more urging residents and business owners to wear the proper masks and do so correctly.
Speaking at the recent stakeholders meeting hosted by the Ministry of Health last Thursday, Dr Georges said the issue of wearing masks correctly is very important as it will help in the reduction of the transmission of COVID-19.
This comes with the fear that the easily transmissible Omicron variant is already making its way through the territory despite no positive results returning from the samples sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).
The Acting CMO said the current masks he has seen being worn by people in the Virgin Islands are virtually ineffective against protection from COVID-19 as the number of layers does not offer much protection from entry of the virus into your mouth and nasal passageways.
“We just want to drive home that a bandana or handkerchief around your mouth or those neck gaiters that people pull up over their mouths. Those are single layers of cloths and they quickly become wet with water vapour from exhalation, and these are not necessarily efficient ways of reducing transmission,” Dr Georges said.
“So, we want to insist that when people do come to your business, they are wearing a proper mask. A cloth mask should have more than two layers, but we prefer the surgical masks — the KN95 masks or the N95 masks,” the Acting CMO continued.
With this new recommendation, the concerns continue to rise on mask affordability and if the Health Ministry would aid in making masks available at local clinics for people who may not be able to afford them. However, when posed with the question at the stakeholder’s meeting, Dr Georges did not give a response to the question.
The N95, KN95, and surgical masks are designated as single-use masks because they are categorised as medical masks and usually medical professionals use them once to prevent cross-contamination when dealing with patients.
However, studies have shown that some of these single-use masks can be safely decontaminated for reuse two or three times without compromising their functional integrity.
Nonetheless, the issue of cost in comparison to the reusable cloth masks still poses a challenge to many people in the territory. During the early stages of the pandemic, BVI News conducted a study at various shops and stores in the territory to ascertain the cost of the single-use face masks.
It was found that a lot of local stores double the cost of the masks in comparison to others. Currently, a person can purchase a single surgical mask for at least a dollar at most stores across the territory.
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And common sense recommends breathing natural air and not your own waste!!!
I’ll just leave my nose at home LOL
So, the people(the big cheese in charge)had their prayer thingy to fight against covid.So, now I will call on all my brothers and sisters to have a smoke out…we will smoke covid out. For 14 days, we shall fill our lungs with God’s great nectar of nature the green herb aka Mary Jane…we shall inhale and exhale, we shall be at peace while smoking covid out of the BVI.
Gimme my Lizzie!
60% of KN95 mask in USA are fakes. Also these are single use masks only and are designed to fit very tight against your face.
Not something the average person will fell comfortable with.
Dump the cloth masks. They are useless. No protection at all. This has been known for over 1 year.
vg resident where is your evidence of such claim?
Where is YOUR evidence that cloth masks work, given that you want to force everyone to wear them? The evidence is on YOU to prove that they work, not on anyone else to prove that they don’t. And no, “because Fauci said so” is not evidence.
Lol where did they say they were forcing anyone?… lol yall make me laugh…I been wearing a cloth mask since it happen and maybe its luck but I’ve been good.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/usernotices/counterfeitResp.html
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/usernotices/counterfeitResp.html
Lots of info on the above site for fakes
WHY DIDN’T YOU ADVISE THE RAGING BULL TO REFRAIN FROM ALL THE PARTYING THAT HE AND HIS WISE PUPPETS WHO CAME UP WITH SUCH A CREATIVELY DUMB IDEA ?
Aka, cloth masks are useless and they lied to us for 2 years, but they’ll never admit it.
Just make it a personal choice to wear a mask or not. Just saying….
And since the other person’s mask protects me anyone not wearing a mask should not speak to any of us wearing one which protects them. Yeah we care more for you by wearing ours but you don’t care one bit about us demonstrated by you not wearing yours.
When will we get back to saving the planet so we can talk about the destruction the pandemic has wreaked on the environment via horrible policies and lies?
How much plastic entered our oceans in the past 2 years because of malicious scontrol freaks?
Just following what the CDC days but only when convenient. CDZc also said no more than 5 days quarantine but the good Doc ain’t following them then! Now they say cloth masks attend effective, after 2 years, and just like that the vision less Doc jumped on this too. Nonsense
I just won’t read the papers anymore. Its really bad when good commonsense is not common anymore. For two years I had my own mask made with three layers, most of the time I get into building and get out quickly. For the last six months only supermarkets and sometime laundry mat I visit.
Now to hear that this N95 mask is only qualify for wearing. Come on!
I want to ask a question to the good doctor , how many people die while wearing cloth mask? We should analyze this for ourselves and do not allow someone else tell us how to cope when the very thing we are doing is keep us alive.
It is best not to cause stress on the population at this time. Economy will fall apart, it can mend, business will closed, it can open again. But when common sense allow people to follow a rule that is not fit for them and they loose their lives, that person is deleted from this population for ever. People don’t make babies as before. Stay prayed up.
The real COVID illness was mental illness, i.e. people caught up in all the bad news in the media that they made themselves sick, not the virus!! The reason people are milder now isn’t because of a different variant, it’s because people are realizing that panic isn’t a cure and are handling it way different to when covid first came about. Live and let live, health is wealth.
Dr u all need to stop we bvihsa workers need N95 all the staff there or sick get this s**t fix