Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, the Minister of State for Health, has cautioned Nigerians against indiscriminate wearing of face mask in a bid to prevent themselves from Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Mamora gave the advice at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Monday, noting that face mask was not meant for healthy people but for those manifesting symptoms.

He said “as far as I am concerned, face mask is not meant for people without symptoms.

“People who need face mask are those already manifesting symptoms.

“If you are coughing or you are sneezing and you cannot stay at home to get over that period or maybe you have to go to work, then you also have a duty apart from wanting to protect yourself in that circumstance, the greater duty is for you to protect the person around you.

“That is why the face mask may be necessary if you are having symptoms but without symptoms, it is just an unnecessary hype and being overzealous.”

Mamora, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the information that some schools were asking students to wear face mask.

According to him, a particular school in Abuja insisted that pupils must wear face mask, which is wrong.

“ There is no basis for that, unless you can establish that the particular child is coughing or sneezing, that is when that will be necessary.’’

The minister, however, explained that health workers and those at risk of getting infected with the virus needed to wear face mask, especially while attending to patients.

“The people that really need to wear face mask are caregivers, either doctors, nurses, even the cleaners within the isolation ward.

“We call them PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), doctors attending to patients or nurses who probably need to serve medication will have to kit themselves up within this PPE.

“They need to kit themselves with gown, the boots, the face mask and all that.