Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : April 17, 2021 3:40 PM IST
Medical procedure masks usually don’t fit our faces perfectly
Covid-19 cases are increasing at alarming rate, with global daily coronavirus cases crossing 8 lakhs. According to WHO data, there were 804,807 new COVID-19 cases worldwide on 16 April 2021. With this, the organisation has recorded total 138,688,383 confirmed cases, including 2,978,935 deaths so far. On Saturday, India registered 234,692 Covid cases, which is the highest single-day spike so far since the pandemic broke out, according to the Union Health Ministry data. Speaking at a special ministerial meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had warned that the highest Covid infection rate is approaching. He attributed the sudden Covid-19 surge to rapidly spreading new Covid variants, inconsistent use and premature easing of public health measures, fatigue of populations with social restrictions, and dramatic inequity in vaccine coverage. To contain the Covid surge, Tedros appealed to the people to strictly follow personal precautions, such as physical distancing, masks, hand hygiene, and ventilation, to keep themselves and others safe. Meanwhile, scientists say wearing two masks can double the protection against covid virus.
Wearing two face coverings can nearly double the effectiveness of filtering out SARS-CoV-2-sized particles, preventing them from reaching the wearer's nose and mouth and causing Covid-19 wrote authors of a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The enhanced filtration mainly results from eliminating any gaps or poor-fitting areas of a mask, they said, adding that medical procedure masks usually don't fit our faces perfectly.
The research team led by Emily Sickbert-Bennett, associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, tested the fitted filtration efficiency (FFE) of a range of masks. They noted that the baseline FFE of a mask differs person to person, depending on each person's unique face and mask fit. While a procedure mask without altering the fit, is about 40-60 per cent effective at keeping Covid-19-sized particles out, a cloth mask is about 40 per cent effective.
When cloth masks were layered over procedure masks, the fitting improved by eliminating gaps and holding the procedure mask closer to the face, consistently covering the nose and mouth. Also, the fitted filtration efficiency improved by 16 per cent, when a procedure mask is worn over a cloth mask. But wearing two loosely fitted masks will not give you the filtration benefit that one, snug-fitting procedure mask will provide, Sickbert-Bennett noted.
With inputs from agencies
