Health protection: Tens of thousands of SARS protection masks have been sent to GPs, ambulance personnel and hospitals across the State, however there are no plans to issue masks to the general public, the Department of Health has said.
Over the coming days, health boards will be sending the final batches of masks to doctors. Each GP will receive three to five masks, depending on the health board area.
Doctors are advised to use the masks when treating patients with pneumonia-like or severe respiratory symptoms.
The bulk are reinforced respiratory masks, which, unlike standard surgical masks, form a bond across the face. They protect against "droplets" as well as gases and they filter airborne bacteria and viruses.
While the masks, known as N95s, will be used in hospitals, and in GPs surgeries when required, it is unlikely that the general public will have access to them. The Department has "no advice on where people should get masks", a spokesman said, "because there is no requirement for people to have them at the moment".
PEI Limited, the company which distributes the masks in Ireland, said it was supplying the N95 masks to health boards, hospitals and nursing homes but it had not yet had a demand from pharmacies, where they would be available to the public.
A Dublin healthcare supply company said it was currently trying to source the masks. "At the moment we only have surgeons' masks and we can't say that they will offer protection against SARS," a representative of Fannins Healthcare said.
"We've had a huge demand for the ordinary green surgeons' masks in the last couple of weeks, mostly from people who are travelling through Singapore or to Canada. We've gone through about four cases of them, but we have about 20 calls a day looking for the stronger masks."
A box of 100 surgical masks costs €12.21 and Fannins estimates that when the N95 masks become available, they should retail in the region of €3.50 to €4.50.
