KUALA LUMPUR: Wearing gloves to public places is not encouraged, as it reduces the sense of touch, and does not guarantee protection from any diseases including Covid-19.
Seremban Health Clinic family medicine specialist Dr Nor Izran Hanim Abdul Samad said wearing gloves could cause slight harm because it gave a false sense of safety to the wearer.
“For instance, if we were to touch a dusty or greasy surface, we would immediately wash our hands, however, if a person was wearing gloves and touched the same surface, he or she would not feel the same actual sense.
“It would give a false sense of safety, involuntarily we have transferred the dirt or germs to other places such as our clothes and skin, without realising it,” she said during the Health Ministry’s special Facebook live programme on Covid-19 awareness.
Dr Nor Izran Hanim was answering a question from a Facebook user, Zarina Rahman, who wanted to know whether it was encouraged to wear gloves while shopping in supermarkets.
Meanwhile, another guest in the programme, Puchong Batu 14 Health Clinic family medicine specialist Dr Izwan Effendy said frontliners especially Health Ministry personnel should be given priority when it comes to gloves supplies since they are directly involved in curbing the outbreak.
“I think that gloves’ supply would be similar to the surgical mask’s supply, which is now in critical demand, so we better reserve them for healthcare workers,” he said.
He said at the moment, the public should be following the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines of washing hands, taking care of self-hygiene and practising social distancing.
“In the end, it is back to basic, to washing hands, because we need to wash our hands after touching common areas such as lift, handrails and such,” he said, adding that there is no right number of times a person should be washing hands.
However, he advised the public to wash hands by using soap for at least 20 seconds to effectively get rid of gems or to apply hand sanitisers.
To another question, Dr Izwan Effendy also rebutted the assumption that Covid-19 virus could be spread by perspiration. - Bernama
