Face covering is now ‘strongly recommended’
MASK wearing has been strongly advised in Guernsey for the first time.
During the first wave, some islanders did wear a face covering, but director of Public health Dr Nicola Brink said last year there were concerns that islanders might be lulled into a false sense of security by wearing a mask.
But that changed this weekend.
She said it was important people kept a two metre distance from others and washed their hands.
‘We’re strongly advocating the wearing of masks,’ she said.
‘There’s no one measure that is going to get us out of this.’
At the press conference on Saturday, all of the panel and States staff wore masks and the media were handed masks as they arrived.
Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Deputy Peter Ferbrache also encouraged islanders to wear them.
‘It’s not being made compulsory at the moment, but it’s strong, strong advice that people wear masks,’ he said.
Dr Brink said they were looking at people wearing face coverings, rather than medical masks.
‘It could be anything covering your face,’ she said.
‘The main thing is you’ve got to think of how Sars-Cov2 – the virus that causes Covid-19 – transmits. It transmits in closed areas where you have people sitting together in close proximity. It [mask wearing] is predominantly for indoors, particularly when you are with a group of individuals that you don’t mix with normally in your household. That’s really important.’
Outside the household, she said people should wear masks when they go to shops.
She added that if people were exercising away from people, it should be OK to not wear a mask.
‘But most of the time we will say if you’re out of your house, try and wear a mask,’ she said.
‘We haven’t made it mandatory. We’ve made it strongly recommended.’
Children over 11 are being advised to wear face coverings.
But children under three are unlikely to tolerate a face covering.
Dr Brink said people should use common sense.
There have been reports of shortages of masks in shops.
States chief executive Paul Whitfield said there were still stocks, but islanders could also use other things, like scarves.
