Fact Check: Video Claiming Masks Not Required For Healthy People

Bhubaneswar: A video, claiming that the National Health Mission (NHM) has recently recommended healthy people don’t need to wear masks, has surfaced on social media.

The video resembles a public health advisory advertisement and have Madhya Pradesh government and NHM logos.

In the video, three mask-wearing men are seen asking a woman why she is not wearing one. She responds by saying that masks should be worn only when visiting the hospital or while looking after sick people or if one is suffering from cold.

A Google Reverse Image search has, however, revealed that the video was posted on March 19, 2020 — almost a week before nationwide lockdown was imposed. At that time, the government had not made wearing mask mandatory.

Most countries including India, the World Health Organization and other experts recommend wearing masks along with maintaining social distancing and hand hygiene practices to prevent contracting the novel coronavirus.