NHS staff and patients have been told to wear masks again in some hospitals to reduce the spread of flu , which has hit hard and early this year.

From today, Frimley NHS Foundation Trust has announced that staff working in clinical wards ‘will wear fluid-resistant surgical masks due to ‘the current high number of flu cases in our hospitals and the local community’.

They follow hospitals in Surrey , Sussex, and Swindon, in bringing back masks in A&E, and other clinical areas.

Surge in sales of masks and hand sanitiser

Masks were standard procedure during the Covid-19 pandemic, where plastic barriers in shops and even facial visors were common sights.

But since ‘social distancing’ was officially scrapped in 2022 , people gradually left behind these new habits, including mask w

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