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Coronavirus: Canada faces high demand for masks despite the low risk of the deadly virus
There has been a low risk of Coronavirus in Canada. Still, the country is in high demand for face masks to stay away from the deadly virus.
By the time, Henry Xu got his hands on a few boxes of N95 respirator masks at a Toronto hardware warehouse on Monday, he had already struck out at all the major online retailers and a local drugstore. “Originally, we were planning on buying those surgical masks,” the 27-year-old University of Toronto graduate student said. He said further that most of the masks have been sold out everywhere.
Mr. Xu managed to find the N95 masks, which were named so because when fitted properly, they block 95 percent of fine particles. Surgical and N95 masks are in high demand in Canada, despite public-health officials saying there is a scant risk the country will experience an outbreak of the novel coronavirus that has spread rapidly across China. A spokeswoman for 3M Canada, which makes N95 respirators, confirmed that the company has seen an increased demand for the tight-fitting masks. Drug stores, meanwhile, are struggling to keep paper surgical masks in stock.
They have even checked with pharmacists, and they are all reporting either brisk sales of masks or they are out and having difficulty getting resupplied, said Barry Power. He is an Ottawa pharmacist and spokesman for the Canadian Pharmacists Association. Public-health leaders say even if Canada were to see a rash of cases of the new SARS-like virus, masks wouldn’t necessarily stop the spread of the virus. Masks could, in fact, spread something else: panic. Medical officers never recommend wearing a mask in public. The trouble with masks, according to Dr. Williams and other public-health leaders, is that the general public doesn’t always use them properly or consistently. People often reach under the masks to touch their nose or mouth, which spreads germs.
Dr. Susy Hota, the medical director of infection prevention and control at the University Health Network in Toronto, said she has seen people wear surgical masks upside down, inside out and with their noses exposed. Research on the effectiveness of masks in the general public is mixed. One Australian study found that wearing a surgical mask in daily life significantly reduced the risk of catching influenza, but fewer than half of the study participants wore masks most of the time. It’s a different story in health-care settings such as hospitals, where nurses and doctors are trained to don and doff personal protective equipment properly, Dr. Hota said. For front-line health-care workers caring for patients suspected of carrying the new virus, masks are indispensable, she added.
