High-quality face masks, such as N95/FFP2, can lower the risk of COVID-19 transmission by up to nine times when used by the entire UK population and by three times with individual use, according to a new study.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Study Focused on Public Health Measures: A study examined the effectiveness of various public health strategies, including face masks, ventilation, and physical distancing, in reducing the transmission risk of airborne viruses like COVID-19.
- High-Quality Face Masks Are Highly Effective: N95/FFP2 masks can reduce COVID-19 transmission risk by up to ninefold when used by the entire population and by threefold with individual use, regardless of contact duration, the model found.
- Ventilation Plays a Key Role: Doubling indoor ventilation can reduce transmission risk by nearly a third, underlining the importance of improving air quality in reducing virus spread.
Half a decade on from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a study by the University of Surrey highlights the significant impact of combined public health measures in reducing airborne viral transmission.
High-quality face masks were shown to reduce transmission risk by ninefold, while doubling indoor air ventilation cut the risk by nearly a third, providing insights to support future prevention strategies for respiratory diseases.
The study is published in Physical Review E.
In 2020, the world came to a near standstill as rising COVID-19 cases prompted unprecedented lockdowns, travel restrictions, and widespread public health measures. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 3 million deaths were directly attributed to the virus during the first year of the outbreak, underscoring the devastating toll of the pandemic on global health and economies.
Impact of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions on Transmission Rates
To better understand the dynamics of airborne transmission and inform future preparations, Richard Sear, PhD, associate professor at Surrey’s School of Mathematics and Physics, explored how the virus spreads during contact and the role of protective measures in reducing risk.
“I’ve tried to measure how effective strategies, such as mask-wearing, are for the transmission of airborne viruses. This is both for any future pandemic and for seasonal flu. I combined modeling with data from the UK’s NHS COVID-19 app. While these estimates are highly approximate, they provide guidance on the value of measures such as face masks, social distancing, and improved indoor air quality, which could be tested in the future,” he says in a release.
Factors such as viral load, ventilation, and individual susceptibility are likely to influence a significant variability in COVID-19 transmission rates, with some contacts posing a much higher risk than others. These findings highlight the importance of addressing environmental and behavioral factors in public health strategies.
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In terms of personal protective equipment, high-quality face masks, such as N95/FFP2, were found to be particularly effective in reducing transmission risk, decreasing the effective reproduction number for COVID-19 transmission by a factor of approximately nine when worn by the entire UK population. Even individual use of N95 masks can lower transmission risk by threefold, no matter the duration of contact, whereas surgical and cloth masks are much less effective.
Ventilation also plays a critical role in controlling airborne transmission, as viral particles linger in poorly ventilated spaces, compounded by individual behaviors, such as close-contact interactions, speaking, or coughing. By doubling the air turnover rate indoors, whether that’s through open windows and doors or increasing speed on air conditioning systems, transmission can be reduced by as much as 30%. Complementing good ventilation with physical distancing further minimizes the risk.
“The COVID-19 pandemic was terrible for many of us, which is why it’s important that we learn from our experiences,” says Sear in a release. “It also demonstrated how quickly we can develop and roll out vaccines when faced with a global health crisis. Moving forward, both we as individuals and our leaders have an opportunity to apply these lessons to better control respiratory diseases—not only to head off any future pandemics but to also manage seasonal diseases such as flu and RSV.”
