Minister urges Nigerians to use improvised facemasks

Due to global shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), especially face masks, the Federal Government has urged Nigerians to improvise with handkerchiefs or scarfs to shield themselves from contracting coronavirus.

Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, who spoke during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, said the use of facemasks was not compulsory.

He said: “One additional way to protect against infection is the use of facemask and it includes the improvised homemade facemask or anything that cover your face, even a handkerchief or a scarf.

“It does not have to be hospital-grade, medical-grade or surgical-grade; you can make your own and preferably, in fact, your mask can be washable, ironed and reused.

“The purpose of that mask is to shield you and shield your opposite because if anyone is emitting any kind of droplets or particles, that is, if someone is coughing or sneezing, they push out articles and droplets which can travel in a certain distance and be able to infected somebody who is less than two meters away.

“That kind of emission also takes place when people are shouting, laughing, exclaiming, or even when they sigh.