GUWAHATT: The Director-General of Health Services, Ministry of Health, has discouraged “inappropriate use of N95 masks, especially those that contain respiratory valves” to aid breathability, saying that they could be counter-productive to the idea of containing spread of COVID-19.
“The use of valved respirator N95 masks is detrimental to the measures adopted for preventing spread of coronavirus as it doesn’t prevent the virus from escaping out of the mask,” the Director-General, Dr Rajiv Garg, wrote in a letter to states and union territories.
He further said that states and union territories should encourage the use of homemade cloth masks, which can be made by following guidelines issued by the Health Ministry.
The advisory comes amid rising concerns over the ineffectiveness of the valved masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Valved masks are typically used in industrial settings, where a user needs protection from the environment. While the masks filter in air that the user inhales, the valves help release exhaled air back into the environment.
When used to prevent the spread of COVID-19, valved masks would protect the user but could potentially end up harming others near them.
India government has earlier urged the general public to use homemade masks instead of N95 masks (without valves) to allow the latter to be used to healthcare workers who are at greater risk.