Cities recommending more use of masks

Many cities across China have recommended a new round of the use of face masks to help prevent COVID-19 as cases are once again surging in the country.

On Wednesday, Changyi city of Shandong province issued a notice, saying that refusing to wear face masks or wearing face masks improperly have led to many cluster infections, and that wearing face masks is one of the effective everyday actions to prevent the spread of the virus.

It also elaborated on the places where people should wear face masks, such as shopping malls, supermarkets, cinemas, meeting rooms and public areas of hotels. People should also follow the suggestion when they take public transportation or show symptoms including fever, cough or sneezing.

Cities in Heilongjiang, Hebei, Shaanxi and Hunan provinces have rolled out similar suggestions to promote the use of face masks.

"Students should encourage their parents and the elderly should encourage young people to wear face masks" to create a mask-friendly society, according to a government notice from Dingzhou of Hebei province last Thursday.

While many said that wearing face masks should be people's "obligation", some also claimed that those refusing to wear face masks will be punished.

For example, Zhashui county of Shaanxi province said in a notice that all people leaving home, taking public transportation and entering public places must wear face masks at all times. Those failing to obey the rule will be punished by departments such as public security, urban management or market supervision.

Song Peixin, director of the infection management office under Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital and director of the Jiangsu Hospital Infection Management Quality Control Center, said that the surgical masks people wear on a daily basis effectively prevent the spread of droplets.

"The risk of getting infected can be reduced by 95 percent if both the infected people and the healthy people wear masks," he said.

"The risk will be further reduced and extremely low if the environment is well ventilated."

He added that the expiration date of the mask should be noticed.

"People should change their mask every day as the mask could provide effective protection for four to six hours. Therefore, people working in places with high possibilities of infection should change masks every four to six hours."

Guo Jun contributed to this story.