New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, Chairman of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Arvind Kumar said that masks with valves are effective for air pollution but not COVID-19.
Masks with valves filter air you breathe in but the expelled air you breathe out is not filtered. This is okay for air pollution, but not for COVID-19, explained Kumar in a report published in the Times of India. “You need 100 per cent filtration while exhaling,” he said adding that “if one is infected with COVID-19 and is wearing a valve mask, they are infecting others”.
Masks with valves facilitate easy breathing but are strictly prohibited on hospital premises as an infected person can breathe out the viruses via the valves.
Apollo Hospitals Group Medical Director Anupam Sibal also echoed the same to TOI saying that SARS-COV-2 virus can escape with unfiltered exhaled air and spread. The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) also warns against using masks with valves which can allow droplets to go out of the mask. It recommends wearing layered cloth masks.
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