“Please, give us your final answer: are we supposed to wear masks and gloves? There are some countries where it is mandatory to do so, and others where it is not. Some people are saying that we should wear them, and others are saying we should not. What should we do?” Prosperous Armenia deputy Sergey Bagratyan asked Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan during a National Assembly Standing Committee on Healthcare and Social Affairs session.
“That is a very important question if we are supposed to live with the coronavirus for a long time,” Arsen Torosyan said.
Then, he said that the purpose of wearing gloves and a mask every day is to avoid spreading the virus via the eyes or nose to other people. “If you’re wearing a mask, and you then remove your mask to touch your mouth or nose… that’s the reason. The same is if several people are standing close to each other in a small space- the mask will not allow the virus to spread from someone’s mouth or nose. The same also goes for wearing gloves, but they are more dangerous than masks if they are not removed and changed as necessary.”
According to the minister, some recommend wearing gloves for eight hours, but medical centers require doctors to change their gloves every four hours.
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Torosyan also emphasized that there is a deficit in such supplies all over the world. Therefore, the World Health Organization is even recommending that people wear cloth masks and wash them with hot water and soap. “It is recommended that people wear masks and gloves as much as possible, but their effectiveness will depend on the wearer. It is more important to wash your hands frequently than it is to wear masks. I am not referring to those working in healthcare, obviously. It is recommended that you wear masks everywhere. Once, I had said that there is no need to wear a mask everywhere, but now I have different advice- we need to wear them.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
