Face shields not sufficient to protect against COVID-19, says NCDC

From Moses Emorinken, Abuja

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday emphasised that the use of face shields is not sufficient to protect anyone from the infection of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

It however, said that face shields, which a lot of Nigerians are adopting, should not be used singly, but in addition with that face masks which have proven effective in protecting from the virus.

The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, made this known during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, in Abuja.

He said, “There has been an increasing use of face shields to protect you or the population from the transmission of COVID-19. I also like to advise that face shields are great but they should be used in addition to face masks and not in place of.

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“I know we haven’t been clear on this and so we are doing that now. We are learning everyday and new technologies are emerging. The lack of evidence of effectiveness doesn’t mean that we will not ultimately find evidence of effectiveness. But from what we know at the moment, it is not sufficient to protect ourselves and the population. We can gradually over the next few days evolve out of the shields and back to masks.”

He also explained that the loss of taste and smell have been seen to be symptoms of COVID-19. Ihekweazu therefore advised people with the above symptoms to quickly go for testing.

“There have also been a lot of questions over the role of loss of smell or taste as symptoms of COVID-19. This have been recognised globally as symptoms of this disease and there are very few other diseases that will cause a sudden loss of taste or smell, especially in otherwise healthy individuals.

“It is most likely linked to the increasing incidents of COVID-19. We expect that this should also lead to increased presentation of clinical facilities and increase the testing . This is to make it clear to Nigerians that if you feel that you are losing your sense of smell or/and taste, you should represent yourself for testing,” he said.