Victorian and NSW public hospitals are using a batch of respirators that are at risk of tearing and may not meet Australian manufacturing standards.
The masks did not gain National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) certification as an N95 respirator until 7 June; however, many of the respirators currently in use across Victoria and New South Wales come from a batch manufactured on 5 May.
Wing You, General Manager of BYD Australia, told newsGP the respirator is ‘fully compliant with Australian standards’ and the batch is ‘definitely’ safe.
‘These masks were manufactured in May. They didn’t get approval from NIOSH, but they are the same model,’ he said.
Wearing a mask used to be something Australians saw on television or holidays abroad, but now it could save your life or someone else’s.
So, it’s important to get it right and it turns out some of the advice we’ve been given could give us a dangerously false sense of security, especially if you don’t know you’re sick.
So, the question here is which mask will best protect you and which will protect the community from unknowing carriers of COVID-19?
Cases are ticking upwards in parts of Europe and the Americas are still battling to contain vast Covid-19 outbreaks.
The second wave of infections are starting to be felt, some governments are reaching for a new tool that many public health experts have been touting for months: stricter mask mandates.
In recent days, masks have become mandatory in all public spaces — indoors or outdoors — in Madrid, Greece, Portugal’s Madeira Islands and Hong Kong.
On 5 June 2020, WHO published updated guidance on the use of face masks for control of COVID-19. This guidance is based on evolving evidence and provides updated advice on who should wear a mask when it should be worn and what it should be made of.
World Health Organization updates guidelines on Masks.
Notably in areas with widespread infection:
All people working in clinical areas should wear medical masks
People over 60 years of age or with underlying conditions should wear a medical mask
Governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where physical distancing is difficult, such as on public transport.
First-Res has FDA, CE and PMDA certified masks available to ship, factory direct. (3 ply, 5 play, medical masks, surgical masks, N95, KN95, FFP2 NR, etc)
Except from todays WHO announcement, here is what’s new:
In areas with the widespread transmission, WHO advises medical masks for all people working in clinical areas of a health facility, not only workers dealing with patients with COVID-19.
That means, for example, that when a doctor is doing a ward round on the cardiology or palliative care units where there are no confirmed COVID-19 patients, they should still wear a medical mask.
Second, in areas with community transmission, we advise that people aged 60 years or over, or those with underlying conditions, should wear a medical mask in situations where physical distancing is not possible.
Third, WHO has also updated its guidance on the use of masks by the general public in areas with community transmission.
In light of evolving evidence, WHO advises that governments should encourage the general public to wear masks where there is widespread transmission and physical distancing is difficult, such as on public transport, in shops or in other confined or crowded environments.
Our updated guidance contains new information on the composition of fabric masks, based on academic research requested by WHO. Based on this new research, WHO advises that fabric masks should consist of at least three layers of a different material. Details of which materials we recommend for each layer are in the guidelines.
Due to the global spread of the coronavirus, KN95 face masks and N95 face masks have become a worldwide hot commodity, but many people are still confused about the difference between the two types of face masks.
Know some more differences between KN95 and N95 key assessment indicators face masks.
Protective face masks are classified as PPE in the EU and are subject to the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2016/425 and performance tests according to EN 149:2001+A1:2009.
The Chinese counterpart is GB 2626-2019, but it is not equivalent to EN 149: 2001 + A1: 20019, so what is the difference between the two?
As we all know during this coronavirus pandemic all of us should be wearing masks. And, if you have a sewing machine perhaps you’ve made some DIY fabric face masks for yourself.
But the question here is do they work? And wearing them likely to do more harm?
There are two different studies to show that fabric masks may be effective for the general population, and one in health care workers that seems to show the opposite.
