Even though the advice on the necessity for the wearing of facemasks in public may have changed over time, health officials eventually confirmed that the wearing of cloth masks can help reduce the chances of transmission of the coronavirus.
But what about our toddlers? Should our toddlers and young kids also be wearing masks. This is what we know so far:
In the United States the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked all Americans to wear cloth face coverings to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, and it was reported that online shopping for kid-friendly designs spiked.
Furthermore the answer to whether children should wear a mask is a grey area as officials have not directly addressed this aspect explicitly.
The CDC has said though that cloth face coverings should not be placed on children under 2, or on anyone who in general has trouble breathing.
This agency and the WHO for that matter has so far offered no advice about whether young children should be using facemasks and if yes how they should be using them.
Furthermore according to the CDC, “Published preliminary findings on pediatric coronavirus cases in the United States reported that of the , 2,572 cases that occurred in children younger than 18, those children were significantly less likely to become seriously ill from the virus than American adults were. They also appeared less likely than adults to develop the main coronavirus symptoms like fever, cough or shortness of breath.”
The above findings bolstered the idea that the wearing of cloth masks by children could serve the purpose of asymptomatic children unwittingly spreading the virus to other people.
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