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 face shields, which a lot of Nigerians are adopting, should not be used singly, but in addition to face masks, which have proven effective in protecting people from the virus.
NCDC Director-General Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu stated these during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja.
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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 them.
“I know we haven’t been clear on this and so we are doing that now. We are learning every day 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.
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