WEARING a facemask in public places and during mass gatherings is ideal as the pandemic is not over yet, cautioned a top health expert.
Slackening of public health and social measures is not recommended though the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not placed a blanket recommendation on facemasks, said WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) emergency director Dr Richard Brennan.
Bahrain has recorded 669,937 Covid-19 infections until Monday including 2,972 active cases, 665,452 recoveries and 1,513 fatalities.
“WHO is recommending public health and social measures according to the level of disease transmission in a given country,” Dr Brennan told the GDN.
“So, in situations where there is ongoing disease transmission, facemasks may still be appropriate, especially during mass gatherings and in public places.”
Dr Brennan was responding to the GDN at an online Press conference held yesterday by the EMRO team, headed by its regional director Dr Ahmed Al Mandhari, alongside EMRO Communicable Disease director Dr Yvan Hutin and regional adviser Dr Joumana Hermez.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is not over and is not going away,” said Dr Al Mandhari.
“In the past week alone, more than 80,000 people were infected and more than 600 died of Covid-19 in the region.
“We urge everyone to continue following public health and social measures – this is particularly important if you are aged above 60 or vulnerable because of a pre-existing medical condition.”
He also underlined the importance of vaccines, which he said can ‘save lives and protect health systems from being overburdened’.
As of yesterday, almost 46pc of people in EMRO were fully vaccinated, with more than 790 million doses administered.
“While the vaccine does not fully protect from Covid-19, it is effective in preventing severe forms of illness and deaths,” he added.
On the spread of monkeypox in the region, Dr Al Mandhari cited a 21 per cent drop in cases globally last week.
“Everyone is at risk,” he said, referring to reports of infection among children and women.
“Stigma and discrimination can only delay the response and deflect our attention from what needs to be done,” he said.
The virus is spread through close contact, mainly through direct exposure to lesions, to contaminated clothing or linens, or through respiratory droplets.
“Every effort must be made to control human-to-human spread of monkeypox through early case-finding and diagnosis, isolation and contact tracing.
“We must also scale up surveillance, improve clinical management, and implement infection prevention and control measures, including how to prevent spread among health workers.”
As of Saturday, seven countries in EMRO have officially reported 35 laboratory-confirmed cases of monkeypox with no associated deaths.
UAE reported 16 cases, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon six cases each, Qatar three cases, Sudan two cases and Morocco and Iran one case each.
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