China News Service, June 13 (Xinhua) reported that two recent studies have found that wearing a mask has an important effect on slowing the spread of the new crown epidemic. German researchers have found that wearing masks effectively can reduce the rate of new crown disease transmission by up to 40%; yet another study published in a US journal shows that masks are far more important than social distance and home isolation.
Data map: Japanese people walked through the streets of Tokyo wearing masks. China News Agency reporter Lu Shaowei
According to a report released by the Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn, Germany, the city of Jena requested as early as April 6 to wear masks when traveling by public transportation. The number of newly confirmed diagnoses dropped sharply after Nasdaq.
In contrast, in Thuringia, where the city of Jena is located, most of the surrounding areas and other parts of Germany only adopted the mask policy after several days or even weeks. The epidemic is still spreading in these areas.
The researchers took the development trajectory of Janena City before and after April 6 as the control group, and took the weighted average samples made by other cities and towns as the control group. The population, local health system and the epidemic situation before April 6 in both groups Set to be similar.
The report pointed out that the analysis found that after 10 days of mandatory mask wearing measures in Jena City, the cumulative number of diagnoses decreased by 2.3% to 13%; after various credible estimates in the comprehensive study, the researchers concluded that "masks can be reduced by about 40%. The number of newly diagnosed notifications every day".
The researchers said that their research should be the first analysis to prove that masks can effectively prevent epidemics. They concluded that masks have become a very affordable means of epidemic prevention. However, some researchers have questioned this result, saying it is a "non-experimental study", so it is impossible to claim causality.
Data map: On June 1, the Colosseum in Italy reopened. For epidemic prevention, visitors are required to wear masks, measure body temperature and disinfect their hands when entering the venue.
In addition, Reuters reported that a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) pointed out that in preventing the spread and infection of new coronaviruses, the importance of wearing masks is far greater than the social distance and home isolation policies. After some epidemic hot spots in the world require wearing masks, it is likely to help prevent tens of thousands of people from getting sick.
The researchers found that since the mask policies were implemented in Northern Italy on April 6 and in New York City on April 17, the infection trend has changed dramatically. These two places are the hardest hit areas in the world.
Researchers estimate that this protective measure alone has significantly reduced the infection rate: from April 6 to May 9, the number of Italian infections has dropped by more than 78,000; from April 17 to May 9, New York City The number of infections has dropped by more than 66,000.
After the New York City policy of wearing masks, the daily new infection rate fell to about 3%, while at the same time, the new infection rate in other parts of the United States continued to rise.
Researchers say that preventive measures for direct contact, such as social distance, home isolation and hand disinfection, were implemented before the mask policies in Italy and New York City, but these measures can only help reduce the spread of direct contact viruses. Masks can help prevent airborne transmission.