Mask compliance has been dwindling over the past few weeks across the city.
Fresh coronavirus infections have been gradually declining in the State. Despite varying figures, the cases continue to be stable in the city. However, mask compliance, one among the crucial COVID-19 appropriate behaviours, has taken a hit of late.
Many persons are either not wearing masks or have their masks lowered in public places.
Persons visiting grocery stores and markets were not adhering to masking, while many travelling in public transport, particularly buses and trains, were either not wearing masks or had them lowered. Some of the busy commercial streets in north Chennai, where crowds are huge, are witnessing poor compliance.
An official said the overall mask compliance was not good, with floods diverting focus from COVID-19 appropriate behaviour as people were mainly worried about waterlogging. “We continue to have enforcement teams, with sanitary inspectors empowered to impose fines. But the main issue is that people need to understand the importance of wearing masks,” he said.
Prabhdeep Kaur, deputy director, Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE), said the compliance with masking began to drop from pre-Deepavali times.
“I think we should continue to wear masks in closed spaces such as departmental stores, textile showrooms and cinema halls as we do not know who is vaccinated. We should continue to have compliance in wearing masks in closed spaces. Persons, especially those with co-morbidities, or immune-compromised conditions, should always wear masks even if they have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines,” she said.
According to the survey conducted by the ICMR-NIE in July, mask compliance in outdoor areas was 48% in non-slum areas and 40% in slum areas in the city.
K. Kolandasamy, former director of public health, said it was crucial for people to continue wearing masks.
“The number of cases may be less but severe disease and mortality may be high among unvaccinated and partially vaccinated persons who are above 60 years of age, and have severe co-morbidities. Wearing masks and ventilation is important. In fact, wearing masks could prevent many other respiratory infections as well,” he said.
A senior public health official noted that adherence to wearing masks was on the decline among the public. It was important to continue wearing masks and adhere to other norms at this point in time when fresh cases of COVID-19 were gradually declining.
He said there was a need to undertake a study to assess mask compliance in the city.
Published - November 17, 2021 12:59 am IST
