New Delhi: Widespread use of face masks, combined with lockdowns, could bring down the transmission of Covid-19 and prevent further waves of the pandemic, revealed a study from UK.
The research, led by scientists at Cambridge University and Greenwich University in UK, argued that lockdowns “alone do not prevent the occurrence of secondary and tertiary waves of the pandemic”. These secondary waves may be larger than the first one, they added.
The study showed that if lockdowns periods were combined with “100% adoption of face mask” use by the public, then the coronavirus peak can be “dramatically flattened and delayed and subsequent waves are prevented”.
The findings of the study were published in a scientific journal called The Royal Society Wednesday.
According to Richard Stutt, who co-led the study at Cambridge University, “Our analyses support the immediate and universal adoption of face masks by the public.”
He adds that the combination of widespread mask use, social distancing and abiding by lockdown guidelines could be “an acceptable way of managing the pandemic and re-opening economic activity” before an effective vaccine against the infection is developed.
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Method of the study
In the study, researchers linked the “dynamics of spread between people with population-level models” in order to find out its effect on the ‘R’ value, also known as the reproduction rate of a disease.
‘R’ value is used to measure the average number of people who can be infected by one infected person. The value needs to be below one to completely arrest the infection.
The researchers found that when people wear masks in public, it is twice as effective in reducing the ‘R’ value in comparison to only wearing masks after symptoms appear.
The study examined the effects of different degrees of mask-wearing adopted by people in UK during the no-lockdown period. From this data, it extrapolated that 100 per cent adoption, the curve of the disease is “flattened and delayed significantly”.
According to a Reuters report, “In all scenarios the study looked at, routine face mask use by 50% or more of the population reduced COVID-19 spread to an R of less than 1.0, flattening future disease waves and allowing for less stringent lockdowns.”
The World Health Organization Friday, also recommended wearing fabric face masks to prevent spread of the infection.
Also read: WHO changes guidelines on masks, says wear them when social distancing not possible