Researchers have found under which conditions and in which ways, masks actually reduce individual and population-average risks of being infected with Covid-19 and help mitigate the coronavirus pandemic.

The study, led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany's Mainz, showed that in most environments and situations, even simple surgical masks effectively reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the effective reproduction number for Covid-19.

In environments with potentially high airborne virus concentrations such as medical settings and densely-occupied indoor spaces, masks with higher filtration efficiency (N95/FFP2) should be used and combined with other protective measures such as intensive ventilation. In most situations, even simple surgical masks are effective.

"The combination of high-efficiency masks with other protective measures is particularly important for hospitals, medical centres, and other indoor environments, where high risk patients may encounter high virus concentrations," said Christian Witt, head of the Research Area Pneumology at the Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin.

"Masks will remain an important protective measure against SARS-Cov-2 infection - even for vaccinated persons, especially when the protection provided by vaccination decreases over time," Witt said.

The approach can be used to assess protection against more infectious mutants of Covid. It is also applicable to a wide range of respiratory viruses and diseases, including coronaviruses, rhinoviruses, and influenza.

(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT)