Study Confirms That Wearing Masks is Much More Effective Than Social Distancing to Stop COVID-19 Transmission

Singapore has done a lot of things in an effort to try and push Covid-19 transmission down.

Closing down Singapore for two months.

Giving out free reusable masks.

Issuing fines to people caught breaching safe-distancing measures without second chances.

Well, as it turns out, mask-wearing might be more effective than any social distancing we’ve done, according to a new study.

Study Confirms That Wearing Masks is Much More Effective Than Social Distancing to Stop COVID-19 Transmission

In a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the USA, researchers found that infection trends “shifted drastically” when people were made to wear masks.

Mask-wearing rules were implemented in northern Italy on 6 Apr 2020.

It was found that by doing so, the number of infections was significantly reduced by over 78,000.

In New York City, after mask-wearing was made compulsory on 16 Apr, the number of infections was reduced by over 66,000 from Apr 16 to 9 May.

While the rest of America sees its daily infections rising, New York City saw its infection rate dropped by 3% daily.

It was noted in the study that before the mask-wearing regulations came into effect, both northern Italy and New York City had all the quarantine, self-isolation and social-distancing measures in place.

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Better Than Social-Distancing

The researchers in the study also noted that social-distancing measures are great for preventing direct contact transmission.

However, with masks, people are blocked from inhaling (and exhaling) viral-loaded aerosols.

The findings seem to indicate that “airborne transmission for Covid-19 seems to be the current dominant transmission route”.

Protesters Urged To Wear Masks

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d have known about the George Floyd protests currently rocking the US right now.

On 12 June 2020, the United States Center for Diseases and Control (CDC) is urging the organisers of such protests to get their members to cover-up their faces, especially large gatherings that involve “shouting, chanting or singing”.

What Does This Mean For Singapore?

Here’s one thought that’s been plaguing people’s mind here while they watch MOH’s daily numbers closer than 4D results:

Will we go back to CB?

If the study proves to be accurate, this means that as long as everyone does their part and keeps their masks on (unlike Sun Plaza Lady no. 2), we have a really good chance of entering Phase 2.

Yes, the phase which allows us to dine out again, meet with our girlfriend or boyfriend and basically, recover our social life (slowly and carefully).

Isn’t today such a beautiful day?

P/S: Do note, though, that not all masks are created equal, especially valve masks.