AIIMS issues clarification on usage of masks

A day after asking doctors to reuse their masks four times, authorities from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi have issued a one-page

A day after asking doctors to reuse their masks four times, authorities from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi have issued a one-page standard operating procedure for doing so on Wednesday. After using a mask for a day, it has to be numbered and kept in a correspondingly numbered “big brown bag” for four days before reusing it; “sunlight is not necessary”.

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“On day 1, wear mask no 1 when you step out for duty. On day 2, use mask no 2. After you return home, place the used N95 mask in paper bag no 2 and let it dry out for the next four days. Do the same for day 3 and day 4,” the standard operating procedure reads.

The fifth mask is a reserve. After the masks have been reused over 20 days, they have to be brought back in the paper bags and discarded as medical waste in the hospital, according to the document, which cites the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

Guidelines for reusing masks have been issued by the CDC keeping in mind the shortage during the Covid-19 crisis, but that has come after many American hospitals reached near-capacity. The United States leads the world in the number of Covid-19 infections with close to 400,000 cases. In comparison, India has a little over a tenth of that number.

The World Health Organization rules do not address the issue of how many times an N-95 mask must be worn but advises against wearing one respirator for more than four hours since it could lead to discomfort.

So far, at least 35 hospital staff have been infected in Delhi.

The hospital administration, however, clarified that only staff members in the non-infectious areas of the hospital have to reuse the N-95 masks.

“This is a new virus; the doctors and staff members are scared. So, the N-95 masks have been issued to allay the psychological fears and give them confidence while working in the general patient-care areas of the hospital. The masks will also protect the staff in case there is some asymptomatic patient who comes in and later tests positive for the disease,” said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent of the hospital.

He said the doctors who are in the high-risk areas such as the screening kiosk, the wards for suspected and confirmed Covid-19 cases, and the intensive care unit will get different personal protective equipment.

“We have created three levels of kits for those working in the screening area, the wards, and the ICU. The staff will be allotted kits according to their area of posting. These do not have to be reused, just carefully removed and thrown away as medical waste,” said Dr Sharma.