Protector or polluter? Plastic makes a comeback with COVID-19

Single-use plastic is protecting health workers from the deadly coronavirus. | A healthcare worker put on their personal protective equipment (PPE) before administering coronavirus tests to patients in Tampa, Florida.

But increase in single-use plastics will have long-term impacts on the environment. | Latex plastic gloves littering among other waste in Paris.

A vendor sells plastic face shield as protection against COVID-19 at a stall in Bangkok.

Just when you thought it was beyond the social and environmental pale, single use plastic is making a comeback, be it for throwaway facemasks, gloves or shrink-wrapped vegetables. Largely to blame is the coronavirus and the response to ward it off -- the masks, gloves and other plastic-based items, many of which are now ending up in our oceans -- already strewn with the slow-to-degrade detritus of a constantly growing industry.

A woman carries a baby under an umbrella with a plastic covering as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at a market in Bangkok.

Municipal workers transferring waste from a canal into a garbage truck in Bangkok. Thailand's plastic waste has surged in step with home food deliveries during the coronavirus.

Even when it comes wrapped in plastic, a hug can convey tenderness and relief, love and devotion.

High school senior students study with plastic partitions in a classroom in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province.

A red plastic bag containing material discarded by health workers who take samples to make COVID-19 tests in Bogota.

People exercise at Inspire South Bay Fitness behind plastic sheets in their workout pods while observing social distancing in Redondo Beach, California.

A vendor with a facemask and shield sells beverages behind a protective plastic screen.

A longtail macaque playing with a plastic bag in the town of Lopburi.

Iranian bakers behind a plastic sheet to protect their products at their bakery in Tehran.

Passengers travel on a train, usually packed during rush hour, with plastic sheets spacing out seats to ensure social distancing in Manila.

Municipal workers clearing plastic from a canal, as a resident watches, in Bangkok.

Vendors preparing food behind plastic screens at a night market.

A taxi driver wearing a face mask looks on from behind a plastic screen as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 in Hanoi.

Rubbish, including plastic waste, is seen at the beach of the Costa del Este neighborhood in Panama City.

People eat in between plastic partitions set up in an effort to contain any spread of the COVID-19.

A woman wearing a protective face mask and gloves walks through a disinfection cabin placed at the entrance of the Evropeyskiy shopping mall in Moscow.