CHILDREN SHOULD WEAR MASKS TOO
UN agencies say children under 5-year-old should not wear a mask
In GENEVA, AFP reported the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday, Friday 21 August 2020 recommended that children over 12 should wear masks in the same contexts as adults in the bid to rein in the Covid-19 pandemic.
The UN health agency, in cooperation with Unicef, published fresh guidance yesterday on when it is appropriate for children to wear masks to impede the spread of the coronavirus crisis.
The two UN agencies had convened a group of experts to review the limited data available on children’s contribution to the spread of Covid-19, as well as on the benefits of mask-wearing by children.
Based on those findings, as well as considerations surrounding children’s developmental needs, they said the advice varied in different age groups.
WHO thus recommends that “children aged 12 and over should wear a mask under the same conditions as adults, in particular when they cannot guarantee at least a 1m distance from others and there is widespread transmission in the area”.
The document acknowledged that much remains unknown about to what degree children contribute to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
But it said that while there is some limited evidence that young children may have lower susceptibility to infection compared to adults, data indicated that teenagers “may play a more active role in transmission than younger children”.
The UN agencies said that children under five should not wear a mask.
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