The daily infection rate in New York City dropped by around 3% per day after the wearing of the mask came into effect. (File)
Requiring the use of masks to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in areas at the epicenter of the global pandemic may have prevented tens of thousands of infections, suggests a new study.
Wearing the mask is even more important in preventing the spread of the virus and the sometimes deadly COVID-19 disease that it causes than social distancing and orders to stay at home, researchers in the study published in PNAS said. : The Proceedings of the National Academy. of the Sciences of the USA.
Study found that infection trends changed dramatically when mask wearing rules were implemented on April 6 in northern Italy and April 17 in New York – back then among the regions of the world most affected by the health crisis.
“This protective measure alone has considerably reduced the number of infections, more than 78,000 in Italy from April 6 to May 9 and more than 66,000 in New York from April 17 to May 9,” the researchers calculated. .
When the wearing of the mask came into effect in New York, the daily rate of new infections dropped by about 3% per day, according to the researchers. In the rest of the country, new daily infections continued to increase.
The precautions against direct contact – social distancing, quarantine and isolation, and hand disinfection – were all in place before the entry into force of the wearing rules in Italy and New York. But they only help minimize transmission of the virus through direct contact, while the face covering helps prevent airborne transmission, the researchers said.
“The unique function of the face cover to block the atomization and inhalation of virus-carrying aerosols explains the considerably reduced infections,” they said. This would indicate “that airborne transmission of COVID-19 is the primary route of infection”.
On Friday, the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention urged organizers of large rallies that involved “shouting, singing or singing to strongly encourage the use of cloth blankets to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus”.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
