Short Communication
Year: 2020 | Month: May | Volume: 10 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 192-196
A Step to Overcoming Mask Crisis in India during COVID-19 Pandemic
Kirtan Rana1, Priya Thappa2
1Senior Resident, Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Room No. 135, First Floor, RN Dogra Block, PGIMER, Chandigarh, Pin code - 16012, India.
2Department of Anaesthesia, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, Pin code - 160012, India.
Corresponding Author: Kirtan Rana
ABSTRACT
The advent of the coronavirus in India has forced several with its third month in India. The coronavirus has made several changes in the country be it new policies and guidelines for health departments or educational material for the general public. The tragic condition especially in Italy and china due to COVID 19 has created a worldwide panic and India is not exempt. This has led to a shortage of essential items including the facemasks and hand sanitizers. Irrespective of the actual need people tend to buy, collect, and store the best available masks for themselves leaving a huge scarcity of the N-95 and surgical masks in the market for the health care providers. Despite the number of advisories on the use of masks by the health care providers and the general public the consternation among the latter doesn't seem to end. The data for writing this review paper has been taken from various government websites, WHO int., journals, reports, published and unpublished data. Several guidelines and teaching videos for making homemade masks by the national and international organizations have been made in an attempt to curb the panic among people regarding the masks. The N95 masks being scarce in quantity should be left for use by the health care providers and the general public can use the home-made cloth masks. This paper is to review the existing masks available and the guidelines by different organizations regarding the use of masks.
Key words: coronavirus, facemask, pandemic, policies, respirators, mask crisis, COVID-19