Covid-19 : The Changing Story Around Face Masks

Several weeks ago, health professionals, the civil society and even the World Health Organisation (WHO) told the public that people do not need to use protective face masks unless they are sick or caring for someone who is sick. Experts also agreed that medical-grade protective gear, such as N95 respirators (face masks), should be reserved for health workers. However, the story is changing especially as scientists now know that people who are infected with the new Coronavirus can spread it even when they do not have symptoms. (This was not known in the early days of the current pandemic.) Up to 25 per cent of infected people may not show symptoms, said the Director of Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Robert Redfield in an interview. CDC experts have also learned that people who are symptomatic shed the virus up to two days before showing symptoms. “This helps explain how rapidly this virus continues to spread,” Redfield noted. This silent spread has bolstered the case for people in the general population to always wear masks when in public, since anyone could be sick.
Some countries, such as Austria, have made mask-wearing in supermarkets compulsory. Local leaders in the United States are encouraging and in some cases mandating-that people cover their faces in public. In Cameroon, the Minister of Public Health, Malachie Manaouda has urged Cameroonians, without any exceptions, to systematically wear a face mask when going out of their homes. This has brought to bear the use of all types of face masks in the society. Moving around the streets of Yaounde, one will notice that the majority of inhabitants are wearing face masks made from all sorts of fabric such as cotton materials, loin cloths and bandanas or cut T-shirts. Although, there is the cry for the general population to wear non-medical masks, there are still a majority of people seen moving around with medical masks.
However, the mann...