A mask-wearing Islington student who featured on Metro’s coronavirus front page chats about her new found fame.
Ioanna Toufexi, a journalism student at City, University of London, was snapped wearing a mask at Leicester Square station, which was then used as the front page of Metro.
BREAKING: Three more people infected with coronavirus in UK as Wales gets first case https://t.co/9Vvx2UhyGE
— Metro (@MetroUK) February 28, 2020
Ms Toufexi exclusively told Islington Now that she was amused by the experience. “It was so funny!” she said. “I only found out when my classmates told me about it.”
While she initially wasn’t keen on having her picture taken, she changed her mind after thinking about what she had learnt on her course. “I thought, why not?” she said. “Let’s show some journo camaraderie.”
Though wearing masks has become more prevalent in London since the outbreak of the coronavirus, it is not currently advised. The World Health Organisation recommends that only individuals with symptoms of COVID-19, or those caring for others, with or without symptoms of the virus, should wear face masks. They state that this is to “avoid unnecessary wastage of precious resources and mis-use of masks.”
Ms Toufexi, however, revealed she was protecting herself in order to prevent a vulnerable family member from catching the disease. “I do what I can to lower my risk of getting the virus as I plan to visit my mum, who has [the auto-immune disease] ‘Scleroderma’,” she said. “She takes medication to suppress her immune system, so visiting her and being sick is not an option.”
There are simple things we can all do to slow the spread of almost any germs. Catch your cough or sneeze in a tissue, bin the tissue, and wash your hands with soap and water, or use sanitiser gel: https://t.co/weVE9rLfHg pic.twitter.com/LX7lso5HPv
— NHS (@NHSuk) February 28, 2020
COVID-19, or Coronavirus Disease 2019, first originated in Wuhan Province, China, and has since spread across the globe. Cases have reached every continent except Antarctica, with more than 30 cases currently recorded in the UK.
The NHS recommends that members of the public should wash their hands often with soap and water or hand sanitiser in order to lower their risk of contracting the disease. More information can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
