The World Health Organization held the regular press conference of COVID-19 on June 5 local time. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of WHO expressed that the WHO has updated the guidance on the use of masks, including advice who should wear masks, which situations should wear masks and so on.

The WHO Director-General spoke at the conference on the use of masks

According to the updated guidance, in areas with widespread transmission, WHO advises medical masks for all people working in clinical areas of health facility, not only workers dealing with patients with COVID-19.

People working in clinical areas of health facility wear medical masks

Second, in areas with community transmission, the organization advises that people aged 60 years or over those with underlying conditions should wear a medical mask in situations where physical distancing is possible.

Third, WHO has also updated its guidance on the use of masks by the general public in areas with community transmission. WHO advises that government 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.

People wear masks in public areas

Although there are a series of suggestions on how to use masks, Tedros and the WHO experts repeated that  wear masks alone could not guarantee us safe and sound. Those suggestions may create a misconception and make the public neglect to wash hands and maintain social distance. Masks can only be effective if combined with other prevention and control measures.