Wearing face masks alone may not be enough to curb spread of Covid-19, says pharmaceutical society president

Besides wearing face masks, other practices such as social distancing and personal hygiene are also equally important and must not be disregarded or sidelined. File Photo

KUCHING: Wearing a face mask is one of the many standard operating procedures (SOP) in preventing the spread of Covid-19, but making it alone compulsory may not be enough, said Sarawak Pharmaceutical Society president Susan Tang.

She stressed that wearing a good face mask was very beneficial to all as there was enough strong scientific proof to warrant wearing one in view of better protection for both the wearer and the people around them, but it is not the only essential practice in the fight against Covid-19.

Other practices such as social distancing and personal hygiene are also equally important and must not be disregarded or sidelined.

“Wearing a face mask is only one of the SOPs in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Hence it would be creating a lot of wrong information and pressure to all if we make the wearing of mask alone compulsory.

“People need to be encouraged and taught through public education on the reason and need to wear face masks, to practice all the other SOPs of self-protection and to maintain good hygiene,” she said when contacted by The Borneo Post to comment on the government’s consideration to make wearing face masks in public compulsory.

On Monday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin during his special announcement on the latest developments of the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) had said that the government was considering making the wearing of face masks in public compulsory, with the details to be finalised before a decision is made.

Tang observed that for the past few months, the people of Malaysia have been rather cooperative in wearing face masks, keeping social distancing and practicing washing their hands often.

She said in this regard, leaders, frontliners, teachers, community heads and government servants should lead by example in wearing face masks and practicing all other SOP.

“There needs to be constant messages and reminders (of the SOP) broadcast through the mass media instead of just setting up punitive rules to force people to wear face masks.

“The government and the frontliners in our country are doing a great job thus far and should keep it up in a similar way,” she said.

With the possibility of a higher demand for face masks if their usage is made compulsory, Tang assured that there is sufficient supply and availability in Sarawak for now.

On another note, she cautioned that there are different qualities of face masks.

“All face masks can claim to be three-ply masks, but there are different bacterial filtration efficacy (BFE) percentages. The one with higher efficacy thus gives better protection and are naturally of higher quality and are more expensive,” she explained.

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