The 9 Secrets You Will Never Know About When And How to Wear Medical Masks and Pose off To Protect Against Corona Virus.

1. Before putting on a mask, clean hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.
2. Cover mouth and nose with mask and make sure there are no gaps between your face and the mask.
3. Avoid touching the mask while using it; if you do, clean your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.
4. Replace the mask with a new one as soon as it is damp and do not re-use single-use masks.
5. To remove the mask: remove it from behind (do not touch the front of the mask); discard immediately in a closed bin; clean hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.

When to use a mask

1. If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with suspected COVID-19 infection.
2. Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing.
3. Masks are effective only when used in combination with frequent hand-cleaning with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.
4. If you wear a mask, then you must know how to use it and dispose of it properly.

Disposal of used Face mask

1. As per the Union Health ministry, infected people are advised to wear the mask and dispose of the single-use mask after wearing it for six hours. But due to the pandemic situation, everyone is using the single-use mask and disposing of them off with their household waste without following guidelines, risking the lives of others. 
2. As per the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health, used masks, especially those used by “patients/care-givers/close contacts” under home-care, are to be considered “Potentially infected” and should be disinfected with sodium hypochlorite solution (1 percent) or ordinary bleach solution (five percent) and then disposed of either through deep burial or by burning it.
3. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines for handling biomedical waste, “If a person is being under home-care, biomedical waste should be collected in yellow bags and it should be handed over to authorized waste collector with information about the waste. ULBs (Urban Local Bodies) should engage Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facility (CBWTFs) to pick-up such waste either directly from quarantined houses or identified collection points.
4. Disposal of contaminated Face mask disposal as per the Govt. Guidelines is a must control of the pandemic.

• If a contaminated face mark is not disposed of as per government guidelines it will further aggravate the situation.

# COVID-19, # Stay home Stay safe.