A SENIOR healthcare worker has said that wearing cloth masks to protect against Omicron is like “wearing flip-flops on a building site.”
Professor Orla Hegarty, former member of the NPHET Ventilation advisory group, made the remark while supporting a Bill for dress medical grade masks for workers.
Limerick People Before Profit spokesperson Cian Prendiville, who attended the launch of the party’s Personal Protective Equipment (Covid 19) Bill in the Dáil last week, says free medical grade protective masks should be supplied to workers.
The Bill would amend the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 to ensure employers provide employees with FFP-2 grade masks or higher where necessary during the Covid-19 pandemic; in particular education and healthcare workers, and to provide for a review of this within three months of the enactment of this legislation.
Former councillor Mr Prendiville said: “As it stands TDs in Leinster House get FFP2 grade masks for free. We believe workers should too – especially those in schools and healthcare settings.
“With the staggering numbers being recorded of Covid-19 infections and the transmissibility of the Omicron variant, we think it is essential for teachers and other workers in high-density workplaces to be provided with medical-grade masks so they can have extra protection in the workplace.
“The science is clear – masks work. FFP2 and N95 masks are far more effective than cloth or surgical masks in preventing the spread of Covid 19.
“This is an essential move and we would urge cross-party support for this bill when we bring it to the floor of the Dáil.”
Professor Hegarty added: “Covid is an airborne virus and this requires airborne protection so that people are protected from breathing infected air. Surgical masks are leaky and loose-fitting; wearing them for an airborne virus have been compared to wearing flip flops on a building site.
“High-grade masks such as FFP3/ N95/ KF94 & KN95 can give protection over 95 per cent and can be reused safely, outside of healthcare. High-quality masks are needed now to get cases down and to turn this around.”
