Face mask advice extended in Wales following World Health Organisation updated guidance

Advice over face mask use in certain scenarios has been updated in Wales following updated advice from the World Health Organisation.
Over the weekend the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Wales published his updated advice on the use of face coverings and masks in Wales. The advice cites World Health Organisation updated advice on the topic from last week.

The CMO summarises the new advice as:

• There is no new evidence to suggest that everyone in a hospital or care setting should wear masks.
• Although there is no new evidence, the WHO has moved to recommending the wearing of face coverings in the community, by the general public in certain situations, but only for source control using a risk-based approach and not for prevention.
• There is new guidance on non-medical mask features and characteristics, including choice of fabric, number and combination of layers, shape, coating and maintenance.
  The new document continues to emphasise: “the use of a mask alone is insufficient to provide an adequate level of protection or source control, and other personal and community level measures should also be adopted to suppress transmission”
• It is noted that at the present time, the widespread use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidence and there are potential benefits and harms to consider.
• WHO has recommended that in areas of community transmission, governments should encourage the general public to wear masks in specific situations and settings as part of a comprehensive approach to suppress the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
• WHO recommended that those with symptoms wear surgical masks and continue to practice self-isolation and hand-hygiene.

We asked the First Minister Mark Drakeford about the topic, and if Welsh Government will supply medical masks to people in certain circumstances.

The First Minister said, “Just to be clear, the advice yesterday from the chief medical officer was about wearing clinical face masks in hospital and social care settings. You will have seen that relying on the advice of the WHO the chief medical officer has extended the settings and the occasions on which masks of that sort should be used there.

“Yes, we will definitely be following that advice, that advice was developed in consultation with leading clinicians and chief executives and with a representative bodies in the health service here in Wales.

“Where, for example, someone in a shielded group has to visit a hospital for an outpatient appointment they may be needing chemotherapy, for example, then the advice now will be that they should wear a clinical face mask in that setting. And yes, we will be working with a health service to make sure that if people don’t have access themselves to that sort of mask, there’ll be supplied with them by the health service.”

You can view the latest advice from Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton here on the Welsh Government website.
The Welsh Government has said that following advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) it is recommending that people in Wales wear three-layer face coverings in situations where social distancing is not possible.

The Welsh Government has created a video showing how to make a simple three later face covering using a sock, piece of tissue and a pair of scissors.