Covid-19: What WHO said about wearing mask as protective measure

Many of us know the official World Health Organization (WHO) advice on face masks – only the sick and healthcare professionals should wear them.

But this might change, as a panel of advisers to the WHO is now assessing whether more should wear masks.

Meanwhile US health authorities are reportedly thinking of changing their official advice on masks.

There have been growing calls for universal mask-wearing in recent days, backed by a small but increasing body of research.

Some studies show that there may be more “silent carriers” (people who have the virus but show no symptoms) than we think. There are differing views on how infectious they are, but researchers say they could be responsible for some infections.

I’ve just spoken to Hong Kong University epidemiologist Benjamin Cowling. He’s part of a team that’s been examining data on Chinese cases and in their study, which is due to be published next week, they’ve found between 20% and 40% of virus transmission from an infected person can happen before that person starts to show symptoms.

The main issue with universal mask-wearing, of course, is that there may not be enough to go round and we end up depriving frontline workers and healthcare staff of medical-grade masks – but some are suggesting that cloth masks could be one alternative.

It’s already quite common to see everyone wearing masks in some places, especially in Asia, and in recent weeks some countries like the Czech Republic and Slovakia have made it mandatory to wear one.