It’s not a bad idea for you to wear a mask out in public, but it doesn’t mean that you can back off from physical distancing or even staying at home.
That’s the latest updated from Doctor Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer.
“Wearing a non-medical mask in the community has not been proven to protect the person wearing it,” says Tam, “…it is an additional way that you can protect others.”
Canada’s top doctor says that the special advisory committee on COVID-19 has come to a unanimous decision that wearing one is an addition step to stop the spread on top of other measures like physical distancing.
“Even if you wear a mask, you must continue practicing physical distancing, frequent hand washing, and to disinfecting high-touch surfaces.”
Tam adds that the decision comes as new data shows that more transmission is coming from people who are showing no symptoms at all.
Despite this, she emphasizes that masks used by front-line health care workers, such as surgical masks or N95’s, need to be reserved for those in the health care sector.
In terms of the fight against COVID-19, there is another glimmer of good news in that B.C. has recorded a lower number of new cases this week over the last.
Despite this, Tam says we cannot let up any of our efforts to combat the spread of the virus.
“Even though there is cause for cautious optimism, we must not relax any of our efforts. We need to continue physical distancing, frequent hand washing and covering our coughs to protect our most vulnerable.”
As of this morning, there were almost 16 thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Canada, with well north of 90 per-cent of the over 339 thousand tests done coming back as negative.
