By KANAKO MIYAJIMA/ Correspondent
May 12, 2020 at 14:23 JST
Students, wearing face masks, chat before entering their school in Beijing on May 11. (AP Photo)
SHANGHAI--Health experts in China are cautioning against suddenly engaging in strenuous exercise while wearing face masks following weeks of inactivity at home due to the new coronavirus epidemic.
The warning came after the deaths of two schoolboys who had been out running as part of physical education classes.
The deaths of the junior high school students in mid-April followed an assessment by Chinese authorities that infections had flattened and junior high and high schools could reopen in many regions.
The cases concerned two third-year students in central China, one in Henan province and the other in Hunan province, in late April.
The boy in the Hunan province reportedly wore a mask that is normally worn by medical personnel due to its enhanced protection from airborne particles while on a 1,000-meter run.
In the same province, another student suffered a stress fracture during a physical education class.
One health expert told Chinese media that high-performance masks could impede the flow of oxygen during intense physical activity.
The expert also pointed out the danger of exercising hard all of a sudden after students had stayed home for about three months to work on their schoolwork with little physical activity during the health crisis.
“Classes should start with something that is less burdensome to the body, such as walking, to allow students to build up their physical strength slowly,” the expert said.
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