A CARE HOME manager is on a video mission to help avoid pandemic danger.

Nurse Melissa Marsden O’Rourke, owner of Ashlands Nursing Home in Newchurch, Rossendale, posted the video on Facebook to educate on the dangers of spreading the coronavirus by wearing masks and gloves incorrectly.

In the video, the 40-year-old from the Ribble Valley says people are misusing the gloves by wearing them while on phones and reusing the same disposable masks.

Mrs O’Rourke said: “I have just been seeing people on my way home from work and I thought I should do a video.

“I saw a lady with gloves on while on her phone and I just want to let people know that doing things like this increases your risk of getting the virus.

“Masks can get moist after a while, so they breed bacteria.

“Once you fiddle around and touch your face, any virus that was in your mask or gloves is now on your hands.

“If you use your mobile phones when you have gloves on, you need to clean your phone once you have taken the gloves off.”

The registered nurse also said that scarves do not help in any way and wearing them around the face is pointless, especially since masks and gloves are disposable.

She said: “People are going home and leaving them on kitchen surfaces or in the car and all this just builds more bacteria, you need to get rid of them.

“We are trained in hospitals to dispose of them properly.

“To take the mask off, you need to take it off from behind your ears and hold your hands out and then put it in a carrier bag away from your body.

“You need to leave it outside for 72 hours before putting it in the bin.”

The care home manager is worried that the country will be forced into an even longer lockdown period if people do not follow rules.

She has received positive feedback from people even from as far as Spain who thank her for doing the explainer video.

Mrs O’Rourke said: “If you are going to wear them then dispose of them properly.

“There also colour coded masks I have seen people wearing wrong.

“If you are sick, then the colour has to go on the outside and if you are not sick then the white side goes on the outside.”