New strain of coronavirus found in Malaysia could possibly be more infectious than COVID-19.

New strain of corona virus found in Malaysia could possibly be more infectious than COVID-19 .

A new strain of the corona virus, called D614G, is currently making its way across southeast Asia — and Malaysian health officials worry it may be more infectious than even COVID-19.

 Back in July, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, said that a new mutation of COVID-19 could help coronavirus replicate more easily .

 Here we are now, a new strain,the strain has been seen in several countries across the continent and was originally found in a Malaysian cluster of 45 cases, according to Bloomberg Quint, which follows international news out of India.

 Health officials say those 45 cases of D614G started after someone returned from India before completing his 14-day quarantine. Then, the strain was detected from several samples of COVID-19 in the Philippines.

Covid-19: important potential side effects of wearing face masks that we should bear in mind.

Covid-19: important potential side effects of wearing face masks that we should bear in mind. 

 Most scientific articles and guidelines in the context of the covid-19 pandemic highlight two potential side effects of wearing surgical face masks in the public, but we believe that there are other ones that are worth considering before any global public health policy is implemented involving billions of people.

The two potential side effects that have already been acknowledged are:

 (1) Wearing a face mask may give a false sense of security and make people adopt a reduction in compliance with other infection control measures, including social distancing and hands washing.

 (2) Inappropriate use of face mask: people must not touch their masks, must change their single-use masks frequently or wash them regularly, dispose them correctly and adopt other management measures, otherwise their risks and those of others may increase.

 Other potential side effects that we must consider are: (3) The quality and the volume of speech between two people wearing masks is considerably compromised and they may unconsciously come closer. While one may be trained to counteract side effect n.1, this side effect may be more difficult to tackle.

 (4) Wearing a face mask makes the exhaled air go into the eyes. This generates an uncomfortable feeling and an impulse to touch your eyes. If your hands are contaminated, you are infecting yourself.
(5) Face masks make breathing more difficult. For people with COPD, face masks are in fact intolerable to wear as they worsen their breathlessness.

         This is a better way to stay safe


Moreover, a fraction of carbon dioxide previously exhaled is inhaled at each respiratory cycle. Those two phenomena increase breathing frequency and deepness, and hence they increase the amount of inhaled and exhaled air.

This may worsen the burden of covid-19 if infected people wearing masks spread more contaminated air. This may also worsen the clinical condition of infected people if the enhanced breathing pushes the viral load down into their lungs. BMJ

Face shields in abattoirs and meat processing plants.

Abattoirs and meat processing plants has been labelled "hot spots" for Covid-19,this has prompted stringent restrictions and even shut-downs in some countries. The working conditions in these plants has been fingered as the likely cause of rapid spread of the Corona virus amongst workers.

 The operators of these facilities have changed operational protocols to ensure safety of workers and also food safety. The use of face shields significantly reduce the amount of inhalation exposure to influenza virus, another droplet-spread respiratory virus.

 In Australia, a part of Victoria's response to the COVID-19 crisis, is that meat works will move to two-thirds production with workers to be dressed in full protective personal clothing, including gowns and face shields.


 In Nigeria, some of the processors are already adopting  the change to ensure safety of workers and food safety. Meat processing facilities have taken steps to ensure safety such as coordination with state and local health agencies to reduce transmission or prevent ongoing exposure within the workplace, including offering testing to workers.

 There is daily screening of personnel prior to entering the plant and also temperature screening. An aggressive sanitation protocol throughout the day in all common areas and office spaces as well as additional cleanings each night.


Major food processors have installed protective barriers on the production floor between employees and provides full face shields for personnel performing any job where the installation of a protective barrier is not feasible due to the movements inherent in the performance of the job.

  Read why a face shield is better than a mask.

 Reporting in the April 29 Journal of the American Medical Association, experts led by Dr. Eli Perencevich, of the university's department of internal medicine, and the Iowa City VA Health Care System, said the face shield's moment may have come.

 While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began advocating the use of cloth masks to help stop COVID-19 transmission in April, laboratory testing "suggests that cloth masks provide [only] some filtration of virus-sized aerosol particles."

 According to Perencevich's group, "face shields may provide a better option." To be most effective in stopping viral spread, a face shield should extend to below the chin. It should also cover the ears and "there should be no exposed gap between the forehead and the shield's headpiece," the Iowa team members said.

 Shields are usually more comfortable to wear than masks, and they form a barrier that keeps people from easily touching their own faces. When speaking, people sometimes pull down a mask to make things easier -- but that isn't necessary with a face shield. And "the use of a face shield is also a reminder to maintain social distancing, but allows visibility of facial expressions and lip movements for speech perception,"


 Research from Johns Hopkins University has found that Covid-19 specifically can be contracted via the eyes, “through exposure to aerosolized droplets or hand-eye contact”. Face shields should only be one part of any infection control effort, along with social distancing and hand-washing.