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NHS face mask supplies could be at risk if the government begins advising the public to wear them, hospital bosses warned.
The government’s scientific advisers will meet later to discuss whether the public should be urged to wear masks in an attempt to combat the coronavirus.
But Chris Hopson, executive director of NHS Providers, cautioned that there should be “clear evidence” to justify its use.
He said securing supplies for NHS personnel amid high global demand was “crucial.”
‘Great global demand’
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there is no evidence to support the use of face masks by the general population.
He says that people who are not in health and care centers should only wear masks if they are sick or care for those who are sick.
But the debate over its use in the UK has been gaining momentum in recent weeks, and proponents argue that they may help reduce the risk of people with the virus passing it on to others.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for the wearing of masks while traveling around the city to be mandatory.
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Elsewhere, French authorities will provide masks to people when closure measures are eased next month, and Americans are urged to wear cloth face covers in public spaces where social distancing is impossible.
The Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) will make its recommendations to ministers this week.
But Mr Hopson, who represents healthcare trusts across England, said the impact on the NHS needs to be fully evaluated.
“Fluid repellent masks for health and care personnel are key to safety and to preventing the spread of the coronavirus,” he said.
“Ensuring the supply of masks, when there is high global demand, is crucial. This should be a key consideration for the government.
“There needs to be clear evidence that the use of masks, along with other measures, will provide significant enough benefits to take us out of confinement and jeopardize the NHS supply of masks.”
On Monday, another 449 deaths from coronavirus were recorded in UK hospitals, bringing the total number to 16,509.
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Americans have been advised to use clean cloth or cloth to cover their faces.
The WHO guide, issued earlier this month, warned that public wearing of masks can create a “false sense of security” and cause people to ignore other protection measures, such as hand hygiene and physical distancing.
Although he acknowledges that the virus can be transmitted by people who have no symptoms yet, he says: “Current evidence suggests that most diseases are transmitted by laboratory-confirmed symptomatic cases.
“There is currently no evidence that the use of a mask (whether medical or otherwise) by healthy people in the broader community setting, including universal community masking, can prevent infection with respiratory viruses.”
Masks can even be a source of infection when not used correctly, the WHO added.
But a group of doctors has asked people to make their own face masks to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Masks4All, a campaign group started in the Czech Republic that has attracted the support of more than 100 UK doctors, suggested that homemade masks could delay the spread of Covid-19
Dr. Helen Davison told the Daily Telegraph that the group was “advocating the use of cloth masks as a precautionary principle” and that it had been inspired by measures taken in other countries.
And Professor Babak Javid, an infectious disease consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals, said that “wearing population masks should be an important part of the response to Covid.”
He added: “Once the Covid cases have been largely removed, we can stop using skins, their incremental gain will be low. But now, to really benefit from skins, most of us need to wear skins.”
Meanwhile, an RAF aircraft left the UK for Turkey on Monday to pick up a delay in the delivery of the protection kit.
Amid growing criticism of the government about the current shortage of protective equipment for NHS personnel, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said at Monday’s Downing Street coronavirus briefing that the government was working “all day” to address the problem.
Also at the briefing, UK Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Dame Angela Maclean said the number of confirmed new infections was “flattening”.
Mr. Sunak said there were “encouraging signs that we are making progress” in the fight against the virus, but added that the blocking restrictions must be maintained.
He reiterated the government’s message that the UK needed to complete five tests before facilitating closure measures, including increasing testing in the community and the certainty that there was no risk of a second spike.
In other developments:
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More than 140,000 companies have applied for help paying their salary bill through the government’s job retention scheme, which went into effect Monday morning.
- The BBC identified 80 health workers who died with coronavirus since the start of the outbreak.
- Prince Charles opened a 2,000-bed field hospital at the Principality of Cardiff stadium. The site, called Dragon’s Heart Hospital, becomes the largest hospital in Wales.
- Charles’s father, the Duke of Edinburgh, has made a rare public statement, praising those who help cope with the pandemic and keep essential services running.
- The UK is preparing to use the blood of coronavirus survivors to treat hospital patients with the disease.
- Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has “issued guidance” to ITV following Eamonn Holmes’ comments on 5G technology and the coronavirus this morning
- The government is considering keeping a minute of silence for NHS workers who have died from the virus.
