The EU’s infection control agency recommends both the member states and Norway to advise the public to use face masks in public spaces.
According to Aftenposten, the European Disease Prevention Agency (ECDC) has now changed its focus on, and is now recommending member countries to consider advising the use of face masks to the entire population.
Norway has in the past largely always followed the European recommendations of the ECDC, which Norway works closely with, but the council is contrary to what is currently in Norway’s line. The Public Health Institute (FHI), for its part, has argued that face masks can pose a contagion risk.
– “This is a very relevant problem,” says department director at FHI Line Vold to the newspaper.
“This is being used increasingly and in many other countries. This is an issue we are looking at,” she says further, adding:
– We see that there are changes in that position abroad in other countries. We need to make an assessment for Norway as well.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
Next Monday people go back to work and the barnhages/daycares open.
There isn’t TIME to “look at” or “assess.” If there aren’t masks generally available, people must be told NOW that they will need to improvise their own … and there is LOTS out there about how to make your own … before Monday. And I’ll match my diagonally folded pillowcase against all others.
We wear masks to keep from spreading the infection … which even homemade masks can do, if not as efficiently …*out* if we don’t know we have it, which may be up to 14 days. We wear them for *each other*.
And, again, King Harald emphasized in his speech that we must be thinking of *each other* to get through this.