The update was issued by the World Health Organisation on Friday.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has encouraged people to wear homemade fabric masks in public where social distancing is not possible.
This comes after previous guidance stated that there was no need for suspected healthy people to wear a mask in public.
WHO also advised the people wear a medical mask, self-isolate, and seek medical advice as soon as they start to feel unwell with potential symptoms of Covid-19, even if symptoms are mild.
However, WHO also discussed the potential drawbacks of the general public wearing masks, including the potential increased risk of self-contamination due to the manipulation of a face mask and subsequently touching eyes with contaminated hands.
Speaking during a virtual press briefing, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “In areas with widespread transmission, the WHO advises medical masks for all people working in clinical areas of a health facility, not only workers dealing with patients with Covid-19.”
He continued: “In light of evolving evidence, the WHO advises that governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where there is widespread transmission and physical distancing is difficult, such as on public transport, in shops or in other confined or crowded environments.”
WHO updated guidance on the use of masks for control of #COVID19: https://t.co/z6DTZLG5Qs
The new guidance is based on evolving evidence and provides updates on:
😷who should wear a mask
😷when a mask should be worn
😷what a mask should be made of pic.twitter.com/Cu7MEyCs3J
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 5, 2020
You can read the updated guidance here.
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