{"id":7326,"date":"2021-01-12T19:10:50","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T18:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icpf.cas.cz\/?p=7326"},"modified":"2022-01-10T10:27:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T09:27:29","slug":"wearing-masks-in-public-reduces-the-reproduction-number-below-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icpf.cas.cz\/en\/wearing-masks-in-public-reduces-the-reproduction-number-below-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Wearing masks in public reduces the reproduction number below 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a comprehensive review, an international consortium of authors, of which Dr. Vladim\u00edr \u017dd\u00edmal<\/a> of the \u00a0Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the CAS, aim to provide an insight into the utility of public usage of cloth masks in the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the primary route of transmission of the\u00a0<\/span>SARS-Cov-2 virus\u00a0<\/span>is by respiratory particles (droplets and aerosols), public mask-wearing was found to help reduce its spread efficiently, especially if compliance is high, i.e. when other public health measures such as social distancing are applied and respected.<\/span><\/p>\n

The paper \u201cAn evidence review of face masks against COVID-19\u201d published in the Pr<\/span>oceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) reviews relevant literature on public mask-wearing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the current global shortage of surgical masks and N95\/FFP2 respirators and the use of cloth masks that followed. Summarizing direct epidemiological evidence, ecological studies, modeling, randomized control trials, or studies of direct physical testing of respirators, surgical and cloth masks the review offers evidence that a generalized public mask-wearing in combination with complementary public health measures contributes to decreasing the R<\/span>e\u00a0<\/span>to below 1, enabling its authors to recommend widespread nonmedical mask-wearing to reduce community spread of the <\/span>SARS-Cov-2 viru<\/span>s.<\/span><\/p>\n

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