As well as this legal requirement to wear a facial covering in public areas within health and social care settings, the current guidance for preventing COVID-19 infection also advises strongly that staff should continue to wear gloves, masks and aprons when providing personal care directly. Eye equipment should also be worn when providing personal care to people if COVID-19 has been confirmed in these individuals, or is suspected. This guidance provides a bridge between a COVID-specific approach and a wider approach of controlling respiratory viruses. This will ensure that we continue to protect the most vulnerable people in our society.

Our guidelines will continue to advise strongly that people should wear facial coverings in busy or enclosed areas, and this is part of our series of stronger advice for public health. These and other measures could work together to help to prevent and decrease the transmission of COVID, and this will keep us all safe. With a safe method of keeping each other safe and ensuring that as many as possible of those who are eligible are vaccinated, we can all, hopefully, feel optimistic about the spring and beyond, even though we will, of course, continue to be vigilant of new variants that will arise.