By: Jhoemz Vercide |

Following the death of a 44-year-old male to have had confirmed the novel coronavirus in the Philippines is truly an alarming one.

The said fatality is also the first reported death outside of China. A temporary travel ban has been imposed to and from China, Hong Kong, and Macau to lessen the increase of positive cases.

Some strict measures and advisories from authorities have been promulgated to avoid the spread of infection especially on wearing masks.

As demand for mask went high amid the nCov scare, we bet many of you are really confused about how to properly, to halt the confusion, DOH Secretary Francisco demonstrated the right way of wearing one.

 "The blue one is on the outside. It's supposed to be the water-repellant side. The white is the absorbent [side] so when you sneeze, it gets absorbed there," Duque said in a television interview.

He added that we need to press the metal to anchor on the bridge of the nose to limit the air from the surroundings to come in.

The secretary also emphasized that surgical face masks were disposable and should only be used for eight to 10 hours to avoid bacteria exposure.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also provided an advisory on how to properly wear it, the mask must cover both the mouth and nose and should be tied securely enough to allow only the smallest possible gap between the face and mask.

Don’t touch the mask once it’s attached to your mouth, removed it by holding the straps and clean hands, and don’t re-use the masks!

As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure,” make sure to wear your mask properly and eat healthy food to strengthen your immunity not only to nCov-ARD but to other diseases.