Face masks can reduce new Covid-19 infections by more than 45%, says new study

A study in Germany compared data from cities that did not mandate the wearing of mask and regions that did to come to the conclusion

While several Indians are still reluctant to wear a mask even after the country has registered over 96 lakh Covid-19 cases, new scientific evidence has emerged from Germany demonstrating how the protective face cover can lower the number of new cases by more than 45%.

The regions with a mandatory mask rule in Germany witnessed a substantially lower number of new infections compared to other large cities that did not implement such a mandate.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this week, European researchers compared results from multiple public sources showing that face masks reduced the number of newly registered Covid-19 infections between 15% and 75% over a period of 20 days after their mandatory introduction.

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“Assessing the credibility of the various estimates, we conclude that face masks reduce the daily growth rate of reported infections by around 47%,” they reported in the journal.

The finding comes at a time when the Centre made a renewed appeal to the people to wear the masks and follow social distancing norms notwithstanding the vaccine hopes on the horizon.

“The role of masks is vitally important. Masks will continue even after the vaccine as that would help to break the chain of transmission for the virus,” said Balram Bhargava, Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research.

With more and more scientific evidence reinforcing the importance of face masks, the World Health Organisation too updated its guidance on this protective piece of cloth.

The WHO advises that the general public should wear a non-medical mask in indoor (shops, shared workplaces, schools etc) or outdoor settings where physical distancing of at least one metre can't be maintained.

Even indoors, the advice is to wear a mask if the ventilation of the room is inadequate. People should wear a mask when receiving visitors if they can't maintain distance or assess the ventilation standard.

India’s Covid-19 toll crossed the 140,000-mark on Sunday, of which 482 were added in the last 24 hours. The number of new infections dipped to 4.03 lakh, of which 36,011 were added in the same period. Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi are the three states leading the daily chart of maximum number of Covid-19 cases.