Dr. Salvaña cites study in India that covered community health workers
(Eagle News) – A member of the Department of Health’s advisory group vouched for the reliability of wearing face masks together with face shields to prevent transmission of COVID-19, as well as being infected with the virus.
Dr. Edsel Salvaña, a member of the DOH’s Technical Advisory Group (DOH-TAG), said that the use of face shield together with a face mask has been found to be much more effective based on studies involving health workers in India.
“Mayroon pong pag-aaral si India sa community healthcare workers na marami pa ring nahawa noong face mask lang iyong ginagamit nila. Pero noong nagdagdag po sila ng face shield, wala na pong nahawa,” he said in a Laging Handa press briefing on Friday, June 4.
Salvaña said that face shields provide additional protection against the virus that face masks and even social distancing alone could not provide.
He noted that these interventions alone are imperfect, but if combined, all three would be able to lessen transmission and infection much more efficiently.
“Well, ang face shield po ay karagdagang proteksiyon laban sa virus kasi alam naman po natin iyong mask natin, iyong physical distancing – all these other interventions are imperfect. At may tinatawag po na—iyong tinatawag Swiss cheese model na ‘pag pinagpatung-patong mo iyong different interventions, even if they’re imperfect then mas nabababa lalo iyong imperfectness or iyong risk kung gumamit ka ng… say all three interventions compared to just one,” he said.
Salvaña explained that they are continuously studying how to reduce infections, especially the mortality rate in the country.
-No time to let guard down as high number of cases continue to be recorded-
There are still over 7,000 new cases being recorded per day, and this means people should not let their guard down, even with the ongoing vaccination in the country.
There are also few people, compared to the larger population, who have been vaccinated, so the use of face shields in combination with face masks would be much more effective.
“Mas mabuti na na we keep iyong ating mga safeguards habang mataas pa rin iyong number of cases. At dahan-dahan naman po, pag-aaralan po naman talaga lalung-lalo na doon sa mga fully vaccinated na, baka we can start relaxing some of these measures once a lot of people have been vaccinated po,” he said.
The health expert said that the amount of virus that a person gets would determine the severity of illness of infection that one would get.
“And we think nakatulong rin dito ang face shield dahil ‘pag bumaba iyong amount of virus, kahit mahawa ka pa pero mababa iyong amount of virus na masinghot mo or mapasa mo sa ibang tao, mas mababa po talaga iyong severity ng illness,” Salvaña said.
(Eagle News Service)
