KUALA LUMPUR: As the Covid-19 spread is on the cusp of a more vicious cycle, people have been advised to double and even triple up efforts to ward off any potential infection.
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Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah advised the people that they should incorporate additional personal protective equipment to protect themselves from the virus.
“Double masking (with a cloth mask on top of a medical grade mask) helps filter more particles than a single cloth mask alone.
“Although it’s not mandatory together with the face shield, it gives maximum protection,” he posted on his official Twitter account.
Dr Noor Hisham also shared an advisory from the United State’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on double masking which can substantially reduce a wearer’s exposure to Covid-19 of up to 85.4 per cent.
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The CDC said another way of enhancing mask use is by knotting the ear loops of the surgical mask and tucking in and flattening the material close to the face which blocks 77 per cent of particles.
It detailed that an unknotted surgical mask only works to block 56.1 per cent of particles while it is 51. 4 per cent for a cloth mask.
The CDC said that double masking should always be a pair of surgical mask and cloth mask.
It advised against putting on double surgical masks or cloth masks, N95 or any others.
It said that no doubling up is required if one puts on the N95 mask which is the gold standard and seals the face and filters 95 per cent of particles.-NST