Health care workers at Princess Margaret Hospital with donated masks covering their N95 masks.
WITH the government now ordering people to wear face masks when they leave their residence to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, members of the Inner Wheel Club of East Nassau has started to make them.
“When it became clear that wearing a mask, even a homemade one, was important for all of us to do to help in the spread of the coronavirus, our members sprang into action to begin sewing masks,” said president Elizabeth Howard. “Our efforts are completely voluntary and we are using fabric we all have in our homes and every mask is donated.”
Other members recruited family, friends and neighbours as well as quilting clubs such as the Stepping Stones Quilting Guild to get involved. Hundreds of masks have been made with more coming.
“Our members generously agreed to assist and began making masks in large numbers,” said Robin Symonette, a member of both the Inner Wheel Club of East Nassau and the Stepping Stones Quilting Guild. “To date, the masks made have been donated to family and friends for protection, as well as to the Geriatric Ward at Sandilands, to medical staff at Princess Margaret Hospital, the Princess Margaret’s Children’s Ward, the A&E, as well as The Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama. Our masks act as a cover for their medical N-95 masks to help protect them a bit more and make them last longer.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that it is critical that medical masks (such as the N-95) are to be reserved for use only by health care providers and support staff working in the frontlines of the pandemic.
“We are all called to do our part during these trying times,” said Mrs Howard. “It is a simple thing for us to do and I am incredibly proud of our members and friends for rising to the occasion. We have been told that health care workers on the frontline appreciate the effort we have made and that is gratifying. If the masks help just one person be safe during this pandemic then our united effort was well worth it.”
The government has also issued advice on face coverings, saying:
Make sure you can breathe through it
Wear it whenever going out in public
Make sure it covers your nose and mouth
Wash after using
People are also urged not to use masks on children under the age of two, and not to use surgical masks or other personal protective equipment intended for healthcare workers.
The government has also banned the importation of non-medical protective face masks, with Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis saying the move was “an effort to protect the local mask manufacturing industry that has sprung up overnight as a result of the COVID-19 virus”.
He added: “We are working to protect and encourage small businesses and to create and promote jobs. I am happy to see so many seamstresses and tailors involved in this growing industry.”
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years ago
A lot of really dumb things are now being done by people whose knowledge of virology is non-existent or very limited at best. Most people cannot begin to fathom just how infinitesimally small (very very very very minute) the covid-19 virus is. Only the very rare person who has had the opportunity to look at and study both the size and behaviour of viruses under an electron microscope will appreciate that homemade (non-medical) masks provide the wearer with very limited, if any, meaningful protection from a virus like covid-19 that is capable of aerosol transmission. Masks made to stringent medically required specifications and properly fitted to the wearer's face help prevent the transmission of viruses by normal inhalation and exhalation at the outer edges of the mask. Not so in the case of homemade masks.
Moreover, it is very much open to question whether wearing any type of homemade mask does any better a job at protecting others from an infected person than would be achieved by an unmasked person simply coughing or sneezing into their elbow. Also, coughing is a natural defense mechanism that protects the respiratory tract from inhaling foreign bodies and it's not entirely clear the extent to which wearing a homemade mask may stifle that ability and therefore actually be harmful to the wearer.
It's perhaps worth noting too that the covid-19 virus has exceptional glue-like stickability to just about anything it comes into contact with. Those using any kind of mask must ensure it has been very carefully sterilized/sanitized before each use and the average user of a mask will not have either the discipline or ability to do this at home.
And of course Minnis and Sands, both being medical doctors, no doubt know all of this.
tell_it_like_it_is 4 years ago
Yes this is kind of a fashion photo op. The photo says they are wearing these cloth masks over their N95 masks. Pretty pointless!!
Cloth masks truly won't offer much protection and can cause more issues if they are not constantly washed.
I don't think the general public needs to wear N95s but not cloth masks either. I guess the patients will still get sick with the cloth masks, but at least they will be fashionable when sick right? smh
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years ago
You're probably very much on point here.
TalRussell 4 years ago
Let us all salute the comrade members of the Inner Wheel Club of East Nassau, recruited family, friends and neighbours and Stepping Stones Quilting Guild for their getting involved in making hundreds of masks done made and with even many more signing up join sewing ranks by hour. Nod once Salute, right on to all the sewing soldiers of...sisters, brothers and cross dressers.. amongst ranks!
ThisIsOurs 4 years ago
ok wasn't sure if you were serious or not until I reread and came across "cross dressers"....rotfl
I don't know...The whole world seems to be following whatever some country other flung against the wall.
Giordano 4 years ago
Also the fashion section of BTVI should come on board and start to make those mentioned Masks.
DDK 4 years ago
These mask regulations, importation, banning of imports, banning of exports, wear this one, don't wear that one, big manufacturing opportunity, is such a bunch of foolishness no one will know what is actually in their best interest. It seems control of the population is becoming the priority rather than saving the population.
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