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Geneva (dpa) - The World Health Organization (WHO) has expanded its recommendations on wearing masks as protection against coronavirus infections.
She now recommends that people should also wear masks in their own homes when outsiders visit, if the ventilation there is not good or cannot be properly assessed.
This applies “regardless of whether a distance of at least one meter can be maintained,” says the recommendations updated on Wednesday.
Masks should not be worn on the arm or wrist, or pulled down to the chin or neck when they are not over the mouth and nose, according to the WHO.
They should be kept in clean, reusable plastic bags.
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In hospitals and care facilities, all those working there should now wear masks, including cleaning and kitchen staff and office workers, not just the care staff.
Despite the new recommendations, the WHO maintains that the benefit of wearing a general mask in healthy people has not yet been clearly demonstrated: «At the moment there is only limited and conflicting scientific evidence about the effectiveness of wearing a mask in healthy people to prevent infections with respiratory viruses, including Sars-CoV-2 to prevent. "
A study published in November with 4862 participants, in which some wore masks and some did not, found no difference in infections with the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Smaller studies have found that wearing a mask in contact with infected people significantly reduced the risk of infection.
Other studies have compared regions with and without mask wear and found a decrease in Covid-19 diseases where masks were worn.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201202-99-544895 / 2
WHO recommendation on masks December 2020
WHO recommendation on masks from June 2020
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October study on the effectiveness of masks
November study on the effectiveness of masks