Citizens in Freetown are disregarding the use of face mask as prescribed by the government of Sierra Leone in the fight against the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.
Abdulai Tholley, a businessman in Lumley, told Premier News on Monday that using the face mask reduces the proper intake of oxygen and causes him difficulty in breathing.
“The texture of material used in doing the face masks prevents proper exhalation of carbon dioxide and inhalation of oxygen,” he continued.
He explained that the hot climate of the country makes using face masks very challenging, adding that from his personal experience when putting on the face mask he become sweaty which most time causes him to take it off.
It could be recalled that the Ministry of Health and Sanitation put out a press statement on May 22, 2020, instructing the general public on compulsory use of face mask effective Monday June 1, 2020.
The Ministry in that statement clearly craved the indulgence of every Sierra Leonean across the country to ensure that they wear face mask when venturing into public spaces.
The government instructed the authorities to enforce its use.
According to medical experts, people are exposed to COVID-19 through droplets. This is why using face mask is very important in our collective fight against the virus the Ministry of Health insisted.
A military officer enforcing law and order at the Lumley Market, Jaward Abdulai, said that they were yet to receive instructions from the high command of the Military to enforce the use of face mask on person entering the market.
He added, “We act based on instructions given to us by our commanders. If they would have instructed us, we would have ensured and enforced the use of face masks.”
The best practices for controlling an infectious disease like COVID-19 aren’t easy to follow—keeping six feet apart from others, and wearing face masks in public.
But in a study published Monday in The Lancet, researchers provide the strongest evidence yet that these practices do indeed lower the risk of spreading the virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in recent study indicates that, the general public should be encouraged to use non-medical masks when they are in areas with known or suspected widespread transmission and limited or no capacity to implement other containment measures such as physical distancing, contact tracing, appropriate testing, isolation and care for suspected and confirmed cases (public settings, such as grocery stores, at work, social gatherings, mass gatherings, closed settings, including schools, churches, mosques, etc.); settings with high population density where physical distancing cannot be achieved (People living in cramped conditions, and specific settings such as refugee camps, camp-like settings, slums); settings where a physical distancing cannot be achieved (Transportation e.g., on a bus, plane, trains).
By George M.O. Williams
10/6/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7842