Coronavirus / Wear a mask even within the family, don't invite people into your home: Govt

New Delhi: In what can be seen as an admission of a major spread in Covid-19 infection and a note of caution for the people, the government on Monday said the time has now come to wear a mask even at home.

Addressing a press briefing on India's Covid-19 situation, Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog, said this is the time to be at home, wear a mask and not invite people. He added that people should also avoid stepping out of their home unnecessarily.

"If there is Covid-19 positive case in the family, it is very important that the person wears a mask even indoors because the virus can spread to others in the home. I would rather go on to say that the time has come that we start wearing mask at home even otherwise," Dr VK Paul said.

He said so far we would talk about wearing mask outdoors, but since the infection has spread, people should wear mask even at home.

"The person who is infected must wear it, but even others must do it when sitting with other family members at home. The infected person should be isolated in a separate room," Dr Paul said.

Meanwhile, the government also asked for immediate isolation of anyone who has symptoms related to Covid-19.

"Do not wait for the reports to come. Isolate. There is a chance that RT-PCR tests can be negative, just presume that the patient is Covid-19 positive if there are symptoms," said Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS New Delhi.

Union Joint Secretary (Health) Lav Agarwal also underscored the risk factors associated with non-wearing a mask.

Referring to studies, he said that there is a 90 per cent risk of infection associated with two individuals not wearing a mask and not maintaining adequate social distancing. The risk gets reduced to 30 per cent if the unaffected person is wearing a mask, he said.

Agarwal also stressed on physical distancing measures, saying that if it is ignored, an infected patient can end up infecting 406 people in 30 days. The risk comes down to infecting 2.5 persons in 30 days if he follows physical distancing measures.

The government's advisory on masking up even at home comes at a time when India is battling a major surge in Covid-19 cases.

Facing the twin challenge of a crumbling health infrastructure and also mutating viruses, including the double mutant variant, the government says the surge is exponential.

Its internal assessment also points to the direction that cases will peak by the middle of May. By April 30, Uttar Pradesh is expected to report 1.19 lakh cases and Maharashtra over 99,000 cases daily.

On Monday, for the fifth straight day India reported over 3 lakh cases.