A virologist with the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research, KCCR, Dr Michael Owusu has said there is the need for a coordinated observance of coronavirus protocols at a time wearing of masks is seen as the main protocol.

“Nose masks by itself does not prevent somebody from getting the virus. This is why if you wear some of these masks you must also observe physical distancing.

“It is not surprising that even if people wear medicals masks and they don’t wear it well and there are spaces around, this new strain will not spare you. Once it has access to the respiratory quarter… it is going to attach and once it attaches it is going to give you infection,” he told Joy FM in an interview.

According to him, the improper wearing of these masks could likely be the cause of coronavirus case surges in recent times.

“… the way they are wearing it (masks), the way they are tagging to the nose. The spaces being left around … all this is likely to contribute to the surges that we are seeing,” he added.

He continued that even though filtration masks were the best to keep out the coronavirus, they are expensive and not advisable for the general public.

“But once we all want to go by the medical and cloth masks, we have to add other interventions like the physical distancing together with the masks work very well for us as a country,” he concluded.

Wearing of masks in public is mandatory according to a presidential directive. Police have effected a series of arrests in relation to non-compliance.

The Ghana Health Service announced yesterday that compliance in wearing of masks had remarkably increased.