SAVANNA-LA-Mar, Westmoreland – Steve Morris, the chief public health inspector for Westmoreland, is appealing to vendors selling face masks in the parish to conduct their business under hygienic conditions.

Failng to do so, Morris said, will result in the confiscation of their wares.

The warning comes against the background of reports reaching the health department that vendors selling face masks in the parish are doing so under less than desirable conditions.

As part of efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Government has mandated that face masks must be worn in public spaces.

Since then, several people have been selling face masks at various plazas and street corners in the town of Savanna-la-Mar.

“The concerns we have are that some of the masks being sold are often exposed to contamination as they are not sealed in plastic bags. The masks also come in contact with the hands the vendors use to handle money. The face masks are also exposed to dust and customers purchasing them sometimes are allowed to touch them before they make their purchase,” said a concerned citizen.

“Every time mi come Sav [Savanna-la-Mar] mi figet mi mask so mi haffi buy a new one every time. But mi just see di man [mask vendor] make an old man try on a mask, and when it never fit, him give him another one and put da one deh back innah di stock, and dat is not hygienic,” another woman complained to the Jamaica Observer West.

The Observer West observed a vendor at a plaza in Savanna-la-Mar last week with several exposed masks in her hand offering them for sale. She at one point allowed customers to rifle through the exposed masks, touching all of them as they searched for the perfect one to purchase.

Morris told the Observer West earlier this week that a team from his department will be dispatched to Savanna-la-Mar to investigate the alleged selling of masks under unhygienic conditions.

He stressed that guilty vendors will have their masks confiscated.

The chief public health inspector in the meantime, urged members of the public to wear face masks.

“I am for the wearing of masks in public spaces. In primary health care we are of the business of prevention where we can,” Morris stressed.

He noted that many of the confirmed cases of the coronavirus are asymptomatic.

“So wearing a mask will reduce your chances of getting the virus,” Morris stressed.